Earlier in the week, I reported on how Valve's new Steam Controller sold out almost immediately, and there were little to no precautions taken to prevent resellers from making a profit on it on sites like eBay. As bad as this is for the PC controller's launch, the main reason I was worried was that it pointed to a much worse situation for the upcoming Steam Frame and Steam Machine.
Thankfully, some of my fears have now been waylaid because Valve has published a new blog post that shows the brand is doing what it can to prevent the resellers at eBay from charging a 200% markup on its hardware and exploiting consumers:
"While we were happy to see such a high level of interest," the blog post read, "the experience for a lot of you trying to buy it {the Steam Controller} 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
"Beginning May 8th at 10 am Pacific, we're opening a reservation queue for Steam Controller. Once you reserve, your place in line will be saved. When we go back in stock, order emails will be sent in the same order that reservations were made," it dictates.
This is a welcome change, and not dissimilar from initiatives Sony and Nintendo have taken to prevent resellers during PS5 hardware launches, or for the Switch 2's arrival on the shelves.
Annoyingly, the only thing that's not crystal clear at the moment is whether or not other regions will have access to this initial restock. The blog post makes mention of "Pacific" time before later saying "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," which would suggest that this batch being made available today will only be for folks on the West Coast in the US.
As and when I hear about restocks in other regions, I'll update you.
The reservation system will limit one Steam Controller per customer, and when you receive your order invite, you'll have 72 hours or three days to claim your reserved gamepad. To prevent resellers even further, Steam users who have already purchased one of the new controllers will not yet be eligible to reserve another. Tracking this is definitely one upside of the hardware only being sold through Valve's storefront.
This all gives me a lot of hope where I had none before. We all know the Steam Frame and Steam Machine have been stalling for time amidst the AI-induced RAM shortages. We don't know when they will eventually launch (sometime this year), at what price, or in what quantity they'll be available. I would imagine if the stock of the Steam Controller has vanished so quickly, the Machine and Frame will be in even shorter supply.
Before this blog post from Valve, it seemed as though the company wasn't prepared for the demand and the current climate of online reseller activity that's been plaguing gaming hardware markets for years. Now, with a much clearer and fairer reservation system in place (that the brand has had to use for Steam Deck supply in the past), I'm much more optimistic that the launch of both upcoming Valve platforms will be much friendlier for consumers.
For more on Valve's upcoming hardware, take a look at the best gaming PCs and the best VR headsets.
