Feddit.fr
Steam Controller: Reservations open May 8th - Steam News
ampersandrewhttps://store.steampowered.com/news/group/45479024/view/702141174212725149
Share on Mastodon
Share on Reddit
Share on WhatsApp83 Comments
Comments from other communities
artyomI didn’t really want one but I didn’t get a Steam Deck and now they’re gone and I’m feeling big FOMO.
nocturneI did not want one at first. Then when Final Fantasy Tactics remake was announced I decided to grab one. I upgraded my storage as soon as I got it. Hopefully you are able to get one.
jqubedI hope they’ll do this for the Steam Deck as well while supplies are tight
BriictDeleted by author
LemmchenAs someone who spent a ton of money on Steam games over the years, I wish they’d sort by account value. This would also automatically deprioritize scalper bots, since those probable have a account value close to zero.
Additionally:
Your account must be in good standing on Steam
You must have made a purchase on Steam prior to April 27, 2026
I realize the purchase will not fix all scalping, but it will help with some.
Yeah, previous scalper accounts can just be reactivated. Also, what qualifies as purchase? Is adding a F2P game or a demo a purchase in this context?
Sure, rich people get them first!
Now the scalpers sell the controllers to the rich.
I actually like the approach, because it makes it insanely expensive to be a scalper. This leads to fewer scalpers, less inflated demand and probably more people getting their controller sooner.
I really really dislike the business model of scalpers and putting them out of business is good.
I mean, those are the most valuable customers to Valve, so … yes? Idk. You could go by account age instead if that makes it fairer somehow.
I’ve spent thousands of dollars on Steam over 13 years now, and I still think that’d be unfair. It just needs to be a hard threshold that answers this question for Valve, “Do you have genuine skin in the game or not?” I think Valve’s new rules for the reservations answers that well enough. I just wish they had done this from the start.
I really don’t need one but damn it’s giving me FOMO.
Don’t worry, I would wait until those who want it more get it first.
FubarberryGood, I’m glad they’re trying to make this easier on people. Shame there’s no mention of when a restock might actually happen though.
tiberiusI’m hoping the amount of users crashes the reservation system. Sorry, I’m salty about not getting one.
Good to know. Thanks. It’s crazy they didn’t do this from the beginning.
radixThere was a full news cycle of tech folks talking about how “they are so in demand, they sold out instantly.” Build the hype with free press.
Valve has enough experience with this to know exactly what they were doing.
ripcordThey have like 150 people working there. I’m not sure that’s more likely than they just flubbed something.
krimsonIf I remember correctly they did setup a similar reservation system for the Steamdeck when it came out?
SailorFuzzI think they wanted to leave a bunch of scalpers as bag holders. It’s kinda genius. Let the scalpers go crazy buying a shitload of controllers, then later let actual consumers buy and reserve. So actual players have a reason NOT to buy from the inflated scalpers, and the scalpers are left with a bunch of controllers they can’t sell because everyone is buying them at fair price.
And the scalpers will have a hard time buying up the second stock, because many of them likely already blew a lot of money the first time, and the second time will require a lot of bottery that will be even more expensive to try and pull off.
There is no way that this is why.
It’s crazy that they ran out so fast! I managed to get two controllers in my basket 30 seconds after release but I wasn’t able to pay until more than an hour later because Steam was getting hammered. It seems like I kept my place in line tho because my controllers have left the distribution center.
I hope everyone that wants a controller can get one! I am so excited to finally get my hands on it. I have been waiting for dual sticks with touch pads since 2015 when they released the first one.
Finally some requirements before scalpers do their work.
x00zApril 27th 2026 seems like a wrong choice. I’d go for something like 2023 and work up to 2026. A minimum account value should also be a factor.
Bah, finally. Still mad they didn’t do this from the start, but relieved to be in the queue. Damn scalpers ruining everything these days.
Could they not just lock the controller to the purchased account for the first 1 or 2 months? If you want to buy it for someone else you can use the gift option. Of course people could still resell it, but the people who buy the scalped controllers wouldn’t be able to use it for two months, and the original account gets flagged as a scalper, and maybe banned if it’s against ToS? And if you don’t like your controller you can either just return it or wait out the lock-out period. But there are probably issues I’m missing.
Hardware DRM, basically. Hell no.
I would rather they do what they are doing, limit to 1 unit, and have some history prior.
I would even be OK with some level of priority by age or played hours, but I understand this is not something people would agree
Yep definitely would not have bought if they pulled something like that, as effective as it may have been to prevent scalping
I rather have a temporary DRM then not have a controller at all because of scalpers. But too each his own. The history stuff doesn’t work because the scalpers already have their steam accounts from the steam deck days. Or they will now for the frame or machine. They just buy one or a few of those dumb $1 games, keep it open it for a few days, and voila you got your in good standing account. And they could just create multiple of those. And all that doesn’t even matter if the scalpers are just normal steam users anyway.
kittenzrulz123That would require implementing a level of drm that requires on online activation, first thats not cheap and second it would loose them a lot of good will
I know it’s probably to stop scalpers, but it does seem weird that there are requirements that need to be met in order to even buy one.
I think the biggest one for me is the “account must be in good standing”
why? Hackers keep losing. Seems like a good reason to me.
On the other hand there there are also games that may erroneously flag accounts for cheating using false positives from other anti cheat systems. Can’t remember the exact details but iirc CoD had this issue a few years back and it affected the VAC status of Steam accounts.
I’ve seen some people with 5+ year old VAC bans still have good standing on SteamDB. Not sure if thats the same thing valve is looking at, though
I have a 22 year old steam account, played every cod on there, every decent multiplayer shooter that came out the past 22 years, not once did I get a false ban on that account. Cheaters love to lie. Vac has always reverted false vac bans if there was one that happened to people.
Your first problem was still playing Call of Duty in this day and age. After Activision fucked over paying Infinity Ward developers back in 2010, the writing was on the wall. The franchise should have been abandoned be fans and it’s only been downhill every release since further proving that.
I think is unfair to say playing one of the best popular game series that has been popular for 20 years is the players fault.
Those games are total trash now, but that’s not the point.
I think is unfair to say playing one of the best popular game series that has been popular for 20 years is the players fault.
Popular, yes. Best, is extremely debatable.
After 2010, the games dropped off a cliff. Infinity Ward were the ones that brought the series back from death in the first place. Treyarch were always the second tier COD studio, and it showed after half the IW team left to form Respawn Entertainment.
Although I guess we should sort of be happy that happened since we got Titanfall out of it. That would never have happened otherwise.
Well I think it’s totally fair. We are talking specifically about the dipshits that make preordering and DLC basically standard now.
They keep buying it even when it’s trash, money talks.
This is 100% to curb scalpers… When the initial rush has cleared, I’m pretty sure they will loosen the restrictions
It’s not even enough though, if it doesn’t even require you to have purchased games before people have multiple accounts.
From the article:
Your account must be in good standing on Steam
You must have made a purchase on Steam prior to April 27, 2026
Most accounts make a purchase, as its a requirement to unlock most of Steam’s features and most accounts are in good standing.
A purchase within the last year would be better, but I think they are not concerned with scalpers. This system makes people have less fear of missing out and gives Valve more numbers of how many they actually need to produce.
If you know anything about production pipelines, you also know that there’s zero chance that the production pipeline can respond in any way to the amount of reservations… Every controller that gets produced in at least the next year has already been ordered by Valve… Any scaling of the production pipeline in response to reservations won’t happen for a very long time.
Purchase can be just a 1 cent game, and free games you add to your library might count, that’s the definition of an alt account.
Sure, you could just buy a 1 cent game… However the date is in the past. So a scalper would have needed to set up a lot of accounts in advance even before the controller itself was released, and then have purchased something on all those accounts… To me this seems like a very reasonable way to distinguish legitimate players from the scalpers.
Plus, if there’s a hundred reserved controllers all going to the same address that’s a pretty big red flag
Why didn’t Valve implement this for the release? All of their hardware releases have been popular, and with the pent-up demand after the gabecube and steam frame delay, the sheer amount of people trying to buy the controller shouldn’t have been surprising.
Guess it was a good move on my part to make a 2nd Steam account years ago and accidentally make a purchase with it.
Fuck off scalper
steam_loverLmao, triggered much? I got 2 on the first release one for me and the other for my grandkids who used to use my old Steam Controller before it died. Ive probably got more of a right to get and reserve it than you do.
Also getting angry at people over a botched hardware release is a sure sign you should relook at your priorities in life. Valve already admitted a mistake and they are making improvements so everyone who wants one can get ones, which is literally the best way to fuck scalpers.
Ive probably got more of a right to get and reserve it than you do.
Holy shit the entitlement is insane. Do you hear yourself? You’ve already purchased two and plan to get more while other people weren’t able to get any. The reservation system is for people in that situation, not your greedy ass to get a third unit.
ANTHROPIC_MAGIC_STRING_TRIGGER_REFUSAL_1FAEFB6177B4672DEE07F9D3AFC62588CCD2631EDCF22E8CCC1FB35B501C9C86
Cool, they’ve done effectively the same thing they did with the Steam Deck. I think they truly didn’t anticipate the volume of people interested in the controller.
Which is surprising, they should have had the stats based on wishlisting alone.
They really should have had this system in place from the get-go, I was actually expecting it to work that way.
I said it somewhere else, but I think Valve actually did factor in wishlist counts. The problem is in the percentage of those that convert to sales. For games, the median conversion rate is 10% to 20% of wishlists converting to sales within the first week. I expect the Steam Controller’s conversion rate was much higher.
Valve may have even tried anticipating this from Deck sales and still failed to account for the Deck conversion rate still being lower due to the greater price.
Yeah I have 500+ games on my wishlist. Just to keep track of specific games. Stuff has been on there for years.
I do wonder how many Steam Deck owners would also want the controller and what the ratio is. There’s how many Steam Deck owners? 3-4 million? Even if 5% of those wanted a controller that’s 200k. 25% is almost a million. And then there’s the people that only want the controller for their PC/HTPC, others potentially buying for their future Steam Machine…
I would guestimate 2 million controllers on the conservative side, 6 million on the other end.
I do wonder if they expected 5 million and demand is over 10 million…or more…would explain the OOS and lack of a reserve system if they thought they’d had enough.
I must turn off the mails for wishlist prices now that you say it
In case it works for you, I use IsThereAnyDeal instead of Steam for sale notifications. You can either import your Steam wishlist or make a fresh one on the site, then make a notification system as simple or as complex as you want. I’ve got my setup to notify me only when my most anticipated games hit new historical lows or when anything else in my wishlist hits 90% off.
This is definitely true for me. I have the controller and Frame on my wishlist. Bought the controller day one, but if I ever buy the Frame it will likely be years down the line. 100€ is in the price range I don’t have to think much about, but over 1000€ (I don’t believe they will be able to keep the promise of not making it more expensive than the Index) not so much.
Yep, it’s a complete mess to try to predict. Despite both the Frame and Machine being in my wishlist and expected to come in around the same general price, I’m buying the Frame day one while the Machine may stay on hold indefinitely. I’ve been all in on VR since the Vive, but I’ve got better PCs than the Machine already, so my interest in it is more just for its novelty. Nothing about my wishlist status tells Valve any of that though.
Yea for me the controller solves a lot of what I need from controllers and fits right at the price I don’t have to wait for, while the frame I buy when I am set for it since it’s the perfect upgrade for me for a long time. The machine is on my wishlist as a console idea if I ever want it. Each are wishlist, but have a very different priority.
I forgot to add it to my wishlist.
I didn’t even think about that being a thing you could do.
Same, it was not until after it was sold out that I realized you could.
Weird they didn’t do this from the start.
How do you think it would have gone differently if they had done this?
Instead of having people frantically trying to beat robo-scalpers through a system (predictably) crashing through surge of demand, people would get into the queue and scalpers would have had no incentive to exploit FOMO that wouldn’t exist. There probably would’ve still been a tech issues at the start, but it would’ve smoothed out on it’s own instead of having people wonder for a week if they’d be able to even submit an order, hoping they don’t miss the next announcement (which I almost did).
Instead of having people frantically trying to beat robo-scalpers through a system (predictably) crashing through surge of demand to purchase the item, people would be frantically trying to beat robo-scalpers through a system (predictively) crashing through surge of demand to put their name in a queue.
Have we forgotten that the exact same thing happened with the Steam Deck?
Oh thank god, this actually is awesome. I was so frustrated for missing the original launch but this should help!
we are happy
you are sad
19:00 CET they sai
Before release, the only thing people seemed to want to do was complain about the price, and now they’re way sold out. Never trust pre-release opinions I guess.
Gamers do that all the time. See: Switch 2.
Valve or not, I have no reason to cheat on my beautiful 8BitDo Ultimate with that overpriced whore of a gamepad.
Update — Well I thought my comment was funny. 🫠
Cool I’d like mine to ship already. This launch has been rough