After a launch day that left a lot of would-be buyers empty-handed, Valve is changing things up. The Steam Controller went on sale May 4 at $99 and was gone in roughly 30 minutes, and that’s before counting all the people who hit checkout errors trying to complete orders during the rush. eBay listings popped up the same day at well above MSRP, which is the situation Valve is now trying to address with a reservation queue opening May 8 at 10:00 AM Pacific (1:00 PM Eastern).
The reservation system is built to do two things: keep the next wave of restocks orderly and discourage reseller activity. Each Steam account gets one reservation, and once you receive an order email you’ll have 72 hours to complete the purchase. To qualify, your account needs to be in good standing and you must have made a Steam purchase prior to April 27, 2026, a sensible anti-scalper measure that should at least make it harder for fresh accounts to grab stock just to flip it. For now, anyone who already managed to buy a Steam Controller isn’t eligible to reserve a second one.
Restocks will roll out region by region, with the U.S. and Canada getting filled first next week, followed by the U.K., EU, and Australia in the weeks after. There’s no firm timeline for additional waves yet, but Valve says it’ll keep restocking as inventory comes in.
My Steam Controller is currently out for delivery and I can’t wait to compare it to the PlayStation DualSense Edge, Xbox Elite Wireless Controller, and the Switch 2 Pro Controller.
