I’m job searching right now and can’t really justify the Steam Controller purchase this week. Before getting laid off and RAM-pocalypse, the plan was to buy a Steam Machine and controller when it was going to release early 2026, but clearly that plan has changed a bit.
The FOMO is hitting after the previews this week! Do we think we need to worry about Steam Controller availability later in the year?
I use a DualSense Edge for my PS5, and either an old PS controller when docked or my 8BitDo SN30 when I travel for the Steam Deck. If I had the Steam Machine I’d buy it instantly, but who knows when that will happen and how much it’ll cost.
I have the strongest of feelings all the scalpers and their bots will buy up all the stock almost immediately and resell for bare minimum $200-300USD ( or currency equivalent price ). So yeah, I definitely think there’s gonna be a temporary shortage. At least until the scalpers are forced to sell at a loss because Valve gets more stock and/or does the whole thing of selling refurbished controllers at a discounted price, assuming they do it like they did for deck.
I suspect Valve will limit initial sales. Based on what they did with the Steam Deck, I expect:
You’ll probably have to have a Steam account with a purchased game on the account. Possibly the game will have to have been purchased before a specific date
There will be a limit on how many purchases per account, probably 1-2
Account in good standing (no VAC bans, not flagged for abusing game refunds, etc)