Valve responds to Steam Controller stock shortages, promises more

Not even Valve was prepared for the demand for its new PC gamepad, the Steam Controller. On Monday, Valve opened orders for its near-perfect PC game controller, but Steam buckled under the weight of heavy traffic and the Steam Controller sold out within an hour after launch.

Steam users who want a shiny new Steam Controller shouldn’t turn to eBay to pay scalper prices. Valve says it’s working on restocking the Steam Controller and promises to provide an update on when that will happen soon.

“Steam Controller ran out faster than we anticipated, and we hate that not everyone who wanted one was able to get it,” Valve said in a statement posted to its X account on Tuesday. “We’re working on getting more in stock and will have an update on expected timeline soon.”

While that doesn’t sound like the Steam Controller will be back in stock soon, it’s at least comforting to receive actual communication from Valve on the issue.

Valve may have underestimated demand based on the controller’s high price: At $99, the Steam Controller is more expensive than most first-party game controllers from competitors like Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. But the price is not outrageous, given the quality of the Steam Controller. As we said in our review, Valve’s second attempt at a controller purpose-built for Steam games is an impressive evolution.

“I can’t imagine playing my PC games with anything else,” Giovanni Colantonio wrote in Polygon’s review of the Steam Controller. “With its more familiar design, excellent ergonomics, and seamless Steam connectivity, Valve has finally proved that its quirky first draft had its head in the right place; it just needed the right revisions. The final product still leaves room for improvement, much like the Steam Deck, but Valve has finally cracked a console-worthy PC controller with some strings attached.”

The good news is that Valve seems to be in a position to get new Steam Controller hardware quickly, since the gamepad isn’t dependent on in-demand components like RAM. While we continue to wait for the Steam Machine and Steam Frame, at least we know that Valve is on the right track when it comes to its latest hardware iterations.