Steam Controller more popular than Valve expected - they're working on stock issues

Now give me Steam Frame and Steam Machine prices and release dates!

"update on expected timeline soon" ™
"Steam frame release early 2026" ™
"chocolate won"t make you fat" ™

Lies after lies after lies....

Mitigate the scalpers this time for Gabes sake!

I saw someone claim on X that Valve has 20,000 Steam Machines, considering they sold Millions of Steam Decks, that's going to sell out so fast, it'll be the Steam Controller all over again.

People on Reddit lamenting that there's not even the option to give Valve your money upfront, and then they ship as units become available, which would be the sensible way to do it. Instead, it looks like Valve is going to put batches up for sale, and then it's going to be another mad scramble between customers and scalpers until they sell out again.

Valve focusing on scalpers would be a mistake, their goal should be to ramp up supply to meet the demand, not to waste energy going after a small percentage of purchasers doing what they want with their private property.

No matter what measures could be put in place, criminals always find ways around the rules, there's no point in punishing customers who want to eventually own 4+ controllers because someone __COULD__ lawfully resell their private property after they purchase it.

The RF dongle can support 4 controllers, and controllers have always been designed for Living Room TVs with the idea of having 2-4+ players. Limiting purchasing to 1 makes no sense, let the market dicate how many sales they want.

I know it's frustrating, but we also should know that by selling out, Valves hardware is now even more prestegious which will drive sales more, because psychologically people always want what they CAN'T have.

Memory is fuzzy, but this feels like the Steam Deck launch all over again.

I thought 13 tons was a lot, but doing the math I guess it's not, really... Still a good sign, but they won't have an issue selling anything they make, I feel.

Quoting: ElectricPrismValve focusing on scalpers would be a mistake, their goal should be to ramp up supply to meet the demand, not to waste energy going after a small percentage of purchasers doing what they want with their private property.

No matter what measures could be put in place, criminals always find ways around the rules, there's no point in punishing customers who want to eventually own 4+ controllers because someone __COULD__ lawfully resell their private property after they purchase it.

Does Valve provide any warranty on the Steam Controller? In the past, a manufacturer/retailer got around the scalper issue by simply requiring that the customer provide a receipt of purchase from an authorized reseller. Warranty was not transferable to a secondary owner. Surely, that still applies these days?

Of course, whether or not the purchaser cares about the warranty, is a completely different matter...

Last edited by Caldathras on 5 May 2026 at 6:40 pm UTC

Quoting: ElectricPrismI know it's frustrating, but we also should know that by selling out, Valves hardware is now even more prestegious which will drive sales more, because psychologically people always want what they CAN'T have.

I definitely fit into that category

But my mentality with the steam controller is that they will produce plenty of them in the long run since it goes hand in hand with their upcoming steam machine

It's the more "limited edition" type things that always get me psychologically wise lol

Quoting: Mountain ManPeople on Reddit lamenting that there's not even the option to give Valve your money upfront, and then they ship as units become available, which would be the sensible way to do it.

Amen!

My thoughts exactly. I wouldn't care if my Steam Controller 2 didn't arrive until Christmas, just as long as I knew when to expect it. Right now the uncertainly is killing me 🤔

Not really... but I would like to know when I am going to be able to get my hands on one. Liam's review got me excited!

I liked the reservation system they had in place for the Steack Deck, hope they'll do it like this again at least for the Frame and Machine to mitigate the scalper issue and it was nicer to be able to "pre-order" stuff and get put into the line and get an estimate date than such sellouts where you read the news and once you get home after work and want to order stuff they're sold out with no proper way to at least "get into the line".

Well, on the bright side, this is great for Valve and people who want the steam controller to be supported for a long time. The more they sell, the more likely they are to stay committed to their product.

Go after the scalpers! ffs... "criminals always find a way" isnt even an argument, this is like saying that police should be abolished because criminals always find loop holes to commit crimes.

I cannot help but question what the point of having a 2 controller limit was when that limit was *per transaction*. At the very least, that should be limited to 2 per account until they've got a better idea of the demand. And frankly, I find the attitude of saying "Don't bother trying to deal with the scalpers" to be rather ridiculous. The markups I was seeing on Ebay yesterday were honestly obscene, to say nothing of the fact that they're blatantly against Ebay's ToS given that there's no way any of those sellers actually have the product in hand like they're supposed to.

Quoting: JustinWoodI cannot help but question what the point of having a 2 controller limit was when that limit was *per transaction*. At the very least, that should be limited to 2 per account until they've got a better idea of the demand. And frankly, I find the attitude of saying "Don't bother trying to deal with the scalpers" to be rather ridiculous. The markups I was seeing on Ebay yesterday were honestly obscene, to say nothing of the fact that they're blatantly against Ebay's ToS given that there's no way any of those sellers actually have the product in hand like they're supposed to.

many things could be done, it could be per account as you said, and also they could ask for the account to be older than a certain amount of months to be eligible to purchase, ofc scalpers probably have thought this and have thousands of bot accounts, but it could mitigate the issue, also maybe they could put a cap that if you havent spent like lets say 20 dollars on purchases in the store, you are not eligible to buy the controller... just some 2 minutes ideas from the top of my head.

Last edited by Koopa on 5 May 2026 at 8:22 pm UTC

I'm sure with this first run, people were ready to just keep buying until it sold out.
I assume the next batch will be more normal.

Maybe they should just charge extra for the first run with full transparency that the price goes down after. People who want it NOW can pay, and scalpers are told upfront "you are going to lose a lot of money".

Probably still a bad idea for a lot of reasons. If it was an easy problem, I'm sure people would've had a fix for it by now.

Seems like I was very lucky to get mine when I did! I spent about an hour trying to get one and kept being hit with the "There seems to have been an error initializing or updating your transaction" error. I watched it in my cart slip from 3-5 Days to 6-10 Days...

I hope more stock comes in soon and stays available! I really want to get one for my girlfriend. Or maybe I'll just get myself a backup one. 😆 Now my worry is getting myself a Steam Machine and Steam Frame.