Valve's Steam Controller reservation system may give you Steam Deck flashbacks
When Steam Machine tho?
Valve is about to put a new system in place for those miffed they were not able to get hold of a Steam Controller before stock ran out.
A reservation system begins on 8 May at 6pm, UK time, letting currently disgruntled members of the PC master race enter a queue to buy a Steam Controller.
It’s somewhat similar to the system used around the Steam Deck’s launch in 2022.
Steam calls it a “reservation queue.” Those in the queue will be offered Steam Controller stock as it comes in, first signed up first served, and you’ll have 72 hours to place the order once that offer email comes in.
“While we were happy to see such a high level of interest, the experience for a lot of you trying to buy it was incredibly frustrating. We plan to continue replenishing stock as we get more in, but in the meantime wanted to share changes we're making to improve the purchase experience and to limit reseller activity,” a Valve representative wrote on the Steam Hardware forums.
Steam Controllers are currently listed at up to £200 on eBay, more than double the official £89 asking price.
Those in the UK will likely have a little longer to wait, compared to the US crowd, though. “Replenishment of inventory will vary from region to region. We will start fulfilling reservations next week in the US / Canada, and UK / EU / AU in the following weeks,” says Valve.
Brand new Steam accounts can’t get in on the reservation queue action either, as you’ll need to have made a purchase before 27 April, 2026.
What’s the fuss about? The Steam Controller offers tweaked and refined inputs Valve put into the Steam Deck, with the aim of letting you play any kind of game on the pad. Not just ones intended for an Xbox-style controller.
As well as the two trackpad-like touch pads below the analogue sticks, the Steam Controller can act as a gyro motion control when you grip the handles. Its analogue sticks are also a TMR magnetic design, making them not only immune to the sort of wear that causes stick drift, the tech is higher fidelity than the Hall Effect type often seen as highly desirable among players.
One bigger question remains, though. When are we getting the Steam Machine hardware this Steam Controller was really designed to accompany?
No firm release date has been announced for the system, but we did hear this week that Valve may have imported up to 20,000 units recently in the US for the Steam Machine’s eventual release. It might need a few more than that even if, as expected, the Steam Machine ends up costing a small fortune.
