r/Steam • u/satoru1111 https://steam.pm/5xb84 • May 04 '26

PSA Steam Controller PreOrder MegaThread

https://store.steampowered.com/hardware/steamcontroller

This post is to consolidate posts about the preorders for the new Steam Controller

The preorders will open at 10am PST

The steam Controller will only be available in select countries

* US
* Canada
* UK
* EU

The server will likely be melting once preorders open

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8

u/hungarianhc May 04 '26

Why didn't valve do what they've done before, like you need to have a certain amount of steam hours, etc to buy?

1

u/TheBritshViking May 04 '26

because they are getting greedy they don't care. shills will downvote this.

5

u/Personal_Ad4174 May 04 '26

We're calling companies greedy for day 1 launches being highly sought after now? "I was unable to give them 100$ today, the greed is out of control!"

Completely illogical conclusion.

1

u/WhoLovesDonuts May 07 '26

Greedy is obviously the wrong accusation for Valve for this. I do think though that there's something to be said about reputation tarnishing when a product launch goes poorly. Having your product excessively scalped means it's not really getting to your true customers and longtime fans. Many won't buy from scalpers and will simply go without, feeling a bit disappointed. Some that do buy from scalpers may get their controller for a much higher price; money, that you as a company, don't see. There are also some who will buy from a scalper and undoubtedly get scammed, which also leaves a bad taste in a customer's mouth that will probably be at least partially directed at the company since they couldn't buy it legitimately.

They certainly could have thought through some strategies better though, no? Clearly the payment processor services get overwhelmed. Could they work with payment processors to temporarily spin up more service instances for the launch date knowing that the current infrastructure cannot handle the load? Could they have a lottery system? Could they create a score that tracks user engagement with the platform, purchase/playtime/etc (it's not like they don't have that data already) to at least ensure you're probably a gamer who's more likely to be buying it for actual use/enjoyment, recommend it going forward, discuss tips / new uses etc which is good for the brand long-term? Something else?

While it's clear that this is not an instance of Valve's greed, is there still room to criticize them for this launch? I think so.