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’m certain it won’t be a problem past a month. Primary input on PC is mouse and keyboard. The primary users for this gamepad will be steam machine owners. The controller for now requires steam. Some sunset of ~150 million people will buy this. I’d be surprised if this sold to even 10% in 5 years. It’ll be competing with the likes of 8bitdo and others that while they may have less buttons, no trackpad, it’s the amount of buttons devs design around. Steam controllers until they become overwhelmingly popular along with other controllers that mimic it, those rear buttons won’t be essential for gamepad native games. Steam controllers have nice to haves rather than being the minimum needed. Vast majority of gamers would be served by a $30 8bitdo perfectly well for their uses
I’d expect the PlayStation and Xbox regular first party controllers and maybe even the premium first party consoles controllers to sell more than this and they don’t seem to have supply problems. Those are essential to the console experience. Steam controller is not to PC gaming
15% of game sessions on steam are with a controller, that’s like 10m people lmao
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)
-
When the first controller and link came out it was hard to get for a while before stock evened out after some time. I’d argue this one is gonna probably sell out for longer due to supply chain restrictions on top of the now larger user base of steam now compared to back then.
I would not personally suspect availability concerns for the controller in the same way I would expect for the frame and machine.
I think the Steam Machine was the weakest part of the line-up, even before all the memory shortage stuff, which is likely going to increase the price. I think, the only reason that’s going to sell out, if Valve just doesn’t have a lot of them.
As for the Frame, VR is just too niche, so similarly, I don’t think it will be hard to get one.
I think the price reveal put off a bunch of people who might have bought the controller “on impulse” to maybe waiting for a sale or something, if they get it at all.
Maybe not in the current climate, but what they ended up doing with both the Steam Deck and the Steam Deck Dock is they went on sale after about a year or so, so if you could wait for that long you could probably get it a few bucks cheaper.
That or the AI bubble crashes and shit just get infinitely worse to the point even that is not feasible.
This all being said, you should probably try be more money conscious. Save money from unnecessary purchases, and splurge when you’re doing better. Give or take, etc, all that stuff.
I suspect that, given it’s just a controller, they likely won’t run into the same supply issues that might hit the steam machine or frame. That and I’m anticipating it will sell stronger, for longer, than their first steam controller; so even if stock does sell out at some stage I wouldn’t expect them to discontinue it for some years, any stock shortage would likely be brief.
Lastly, the staggered release cycle will probably help them manage supply issues (if they do arise) better than if they were to release all of them at the same time (the people buying a controller now, won’t need to buy one bundled with a steam machine later, etc).
I really wouldn’t worry about this while on a job hunt. Wait til you’re financially secure and then treat yo self.
