Valve’s new Steam Controller appears to have sold out in minutes, and many gamers say Valve’s own online storefront made things worse. The controller went on sale on May 4 for $99, and early demand quickly exhausted day-one stock, with the store marking it unavailable within 40 minutes.
As everyone rushed to buy, buyers faced repeated checkout errors on the Steam Store, saw confusing transaction messages, and had to retry filling their cart or payment methods several times. Some say they still failed to secure a unit before a label appeared reading “out of stock.” Our PCMag colleagues report that in at least one case, the controller briefly appeared available again, but the store blocked checkout, saying the item in the user’s cart was unavailable.
But is the accessory 100% unavailable? Some Reddit users note that clicking exactly 30 or 60 times finally allowed them to buy the controller, prompting jokes about “just keep clicking” and “never give up.” Though Valve’s store currently says the controller is out of stock, it’s unclear whether its initial supply has truly sold out or if e-commerce issues are at play.
It doesn’t help that Valve is selling the Steam Controller exclusively through its own store for now, leaving hopeful buyers with no choice but to wait for a Valve update or buy from scalpers on eBay. The latter means spending between $250 and $700 for a single controller.
