• 2 hours

    What a curious way of saying this product is in very high demand, it’s almost like the publication wants to project failure and perhaps even ill-will onto the vendor. Veeeeery interesting. Anyone seen Mr. Sweeney lately by the way?

  • “So behind”

    They’re dealing with exorbitant demand during a time when tech and hardware prices are skyrocketing. They’re doing quite well given the circumstances, imo.

    • 7 hours

      I have no doubt it is with the way the prices have been with memory and gas for a while now at this point. Not necessarily Valve’s fault, but it’s gonna suck ass regardless.

  • My wife was supposed to get hers for Mother’s Day. Now she’s hoping Christmas? But even that’s iffy at this point.

    • “Your present is still being manufactured, please hold”

      “Oh honey, I’ll cherish this “Estimated Time of Shipping : Next May” email close to my heart whenever I need to feel appreciated for being a mother.”

      I hope she eventually enjoys it. I just wanted to make a joke of a shitty situation you ended up in.

  • I reserved mine 15 minutes after the reservations opened and I’m not getting it till September

    • There’s 3 possible categories, and you got the earliest. The other two are “December” and “2027”.

  • 7 hours

    Sad, mine is in 2027 and I got in on day 2 when they opened pre-orders as I missed initial announcement.

  • I’m very happy I managed to snag one. For anyone waiting: it’ll be worth it.

  • yay got my notification today. Reserved on the 8th. Just leaving this here as some hope to the people that haven’t received anythng yet

    • It very much depends on where in the world you are. I reserved mine at 1am on the 9th, not long after they opened the reservations (because of the time difference, I’m in Sweden), and it says my estimate is in december this year… :(

      • i am in germany so i don’t think it should be much different for you. I don’t remember the exact time but the system said it was still on the 8th.

  • Gonna keep buying Xbox controllers I suppose then :\ Would love to throw money at Valve for theirs, but they aren’t making it easy and I am not going to join a waitlist for a piece of plastic lol. Hopefully in the future they’ll have some for sale

    • Plenty of 3rd party options with better tech and lower price are available than Xbox controllers.

      • Got any examples? I’ve been shopping around but can’t find anything I’m terribly happy with

        • Flydigi Vader 5 is absolutely excellent. There are cheaper options with less features from Flydigi, too. I can highly recommend.

        • In other comments I’ve already pointed to 8bitdo https://www.8bitdo.com/

          Their Ultimate 2 series of controllers have a stupid naming scheme so you have to be careful if you go with one of those. They have a Nintendo compatible variant called the Ultimate 2 Bluetooth controller but all the other ones also come with a USB dongle and a physical switch on the back to enable bluetooth mode (they refer it to Android compatibility then). The low end one is the Ultimate 2c and even that comes with hall effect sensors. The Nintendo compatible one also works with PCs but in Bluetooth mode its ID is Pro Controller and the A/B X/Y buttons are swapped Nintendo style (in Steam it’s a option to reverse that). I have the Nintendo one because it’s better than a Nintendo Pro Controller and a couple of my friends bought the 2c when it was on a ludicrous sale on AliExpress for 10 Euro.

          The latest version is the Ultimate 3E which is officially licensed for Xbox. 130 Euro is a bit steep for me. The 8Bitdo Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller costs half the price and the 2c is half of that for a relatively minor loss in features (no RGB LEDs, hall effect instead of TMR sticks).

          A friend of mine has KingKong 2 Pro Controller by Gulikit which is not a couple of years old. He’s only a casual gamer but so far he’s happy with it. I cannot speak for the quality of the latest Gulikit controller.

        • 8bitdo Ultimate 2, do really watch the product name though, because a lot of their similar named controllers are completely different (8bitdo Ultimate 2C for example)

    • Made my reservation just a bit after 1am on the 9th… :'(

      • Just “2027” for me. I was no slouch on reserving, either.

        Edit: wait I’m an idiot, this says reserve now?! I definitely reserved!

        Edit 2:

        I did reserve, I got the chance to buy it 6 days ago, it expired 3 days ago, I never saw it. That sucks. Didn’t even get a push notification on the steam app. Just an email I missed.

      • Man this sucks. Not angry with Valve, it seems they far, FAR underestimated demand, but with the entire industry being on fire I also sort of understand. I’m a computer guy and when people want to buy hardware from me I spiral in to a dark place because it’s practically impossible and my prices are so huge they’d be insane to even speak to me again.

    • If it helps. That is the “earliest estimate”

      Pretty sure, every controller they have is going to go out with the Frame or the Machine from now til then. Need to justify the (almost guaranteed) $1000+ MSRP.

    • 12 hours

      I put my order in about 30 minutes after the reservation queue went live and I also show a September estimated date. I’m interested, when did you get your reservation in?

      • I don’t remember for sure, I think it was early afternoon that day?

        Edit: Got the confirmation email from my reservation 1:10pm May 8th

          • Might want to check the status on the reservation page then

            But yes you should’ve gotten an email

            Could also maybe ask support to resend you the email if possible

    • i got the same estimate and i placed my reservation like an hour after they opened :c

    • Think of it like this,this estimates everyone buying it. It can only get better from this. I got dec. 26

  • Well, on the one hand… having more demand than you can actually fulfill is the kind of problem most busineses would like to have…

      • I mean… even if they’re not moving a lot of units, its still broadly a good problem to have -> considerably more people than you thought, want to buy the thing you sell.

        So at bare minimum you’ve over delivered in terms of product design.

        The extremely obvious capitalist response to that would be to raise prices on that thing. Win win, right? The extra profits go toward more capex to make more future production.

        … But they haven’t done that.

        They haven’t done that because they care about their image more than their profit margins on this particular product.

        And/or because in the current environment… basically, the cost/reward on spending more capex isn’t worth the reputation hit.

        The capex spending to meaningfully ramp up production would be so expensive, that it’d end up being a net loss, in terms of reputation damage.

        … At least this is my semi-informed guess.

    • Or they are taking a loss on every deck, controller, sold and we don’t even have a price on the desktop.

      Valve is taking a red bloody bath and slowing the bleeding.

      • Do you have any evidence to suggest that valve released a brand new controller and decided, what out of the goodness of their hearts, to sell it for a loss?

        • Businesses sell things for a loss all the time, it’s never out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s a strategy to gain market share or to sell other products for a higher margin. Every supermarket you’ve ever been to has products for sale at a loss. Doesn’t make it a good deal for the customer either, just an accounting reality.

          • Yeah but this isn’t really the same as the Costco hot dog. It’s a product that’s more expensive than the alternatives (though they don’t have track pads) and steam is the defacto pc gaming software. Other massive companies can barely compete and have to do stuff like epic where they give games out for free (exactly the kind of tactic you’re talking about). My sarcastic comment about the kindness of their heart is because I personally can’t see another reason to do that. That’s why I asked for any evidence - an interview, a tweet from someone who would know, an article, anything other than a hunch.

            • sarcastic comment about the kindness of their heart is because I personally can’t see another reason to do that

              Exactly you can’t personally see it so i explained it to you lol

          • Yes but valve already has a monopoly on the PC gaming market. Usually companies sell things at a loss to attract you to them so you buy other things while you get the good deal.

            In valve’s case, we’re already in the store buying their games. There’s no reason for them to sell it at a loss, because it won’t attract people to steam.

            Theres nobody out there saying “wow I would be a PC gamer playing on steam if I had a steam specific controller.”

            Maybe that’s the case for the steam machines and steam frame coming up, but I kinda doubt it.

          • As someone who works in retail, even our best sales at our store will still make us around a 10% profit. Our normal GP for items sits around 30% to 40%, so while it is less than that we almost never actually sell things for a real loss.

          • 9 hours

            They could’ve sold it at twice the price I’d still would’ve bought one tho?

      • Why should they take a loss on the controller? There is no RAM or other parts affected by the price hikes in it. Also they announced the price only shortly before launch. Why should they have chosen a price that does not cover the costs? This does not make any sense.

  • 10 hours

    I put in my reservation on May 14th and it’s showing availability in 2027 for me. It’s kind of killing my interest to be honest. That’s a long wait.

  • 16 hours

    Well, at least it’s an update. I was just about to post in here if anyone had received a purchase link from their reservation yet. I made mine on May 10th; maybe that means I’ll be in the “this year” batch.

    • I made the reservation right as they opened on May 8th. I got my invite link on June 11th, and it arrived at my door on Monday, June 15th.

    • Or maybe you’ll get the link tomorrow and it will ship alarmingly fast like mine! ¯\(ツ)sBp7amhXoaMip0h.jpg

      • 13 hours

        Yup, I got mine on day one (spam that F5 ppl) and it was here on the second day, surprised me, pleasantly, they said a week.

    • I’m in the US. Reservations opened at 12pm May 8th, I queued up by 12:01, got my link to purchase last Thursday with the controller arriving a few days ago. Based on that and considering there were likely a lot of reservations placed over those two days, my gut says that you might be waiting a while, unfortunately.

    • I made my reservation in the first minutes when it was possible and clicked the buying link as soon as I got one sent. The controller was delivered 10 days ago. I am located in Germany.

    • 14 hours

      I made my reservation request on May 8th at 11am, and I got my purchase invitation on June 15th at 9pm. Hope that helps.

  • I missed the boat on this one, but I have the OG controller so I guess I’ll keep using that awkward ass thing.

  • I have a Steam Deck and am not sure what the hype is about with the Steam controller. On my SD, the track pads don’t really work that well (mainly use them in desktop mode as a mouse), and $50 Xbox controllers otherwise seem equivalent, except at half the price with support for Linux distros other than SteamOS. Am I overlooking something critical?

    • If you’ve never created a custom menu for a game on the steam deck, I can understand not getting the hype. I have customized the controls for a few games so much that I found myself reaching for my deck even when I had my TV or computer available. For me having the same control layout between deck and controller is huge.

    • 8 hours

      Trackpads are crucial if you want to play strategy games or anything mouse based. They also offer a lot better aiming control in fps games (although I think using gyro for aiming is even better than that). They also can be used for fancy touch menus and things like that.

      The back buttons are also extremely nice.

      • So use KB+M? Trackpad is a terrible replacement for a mouse/trackball. A lot better aiming in fps vs what? Xbox controller? KB+M?

        • 6 hours

          For FPS games, I’d rank it Mouse>Finger Trackball>Gyro Aim>Thumb Trackball/Trackpads>>Thumbstick

          So yeah, if mouse+kb is available, use that. But that’s not a good option on my living room couch.

            • 4 hours

              I have actually, I tried using a thumb ball for awhile before swapping to a 52mm fingerball.

              Felt like the ball was too small and my thumb lacked the precision to make it a good alternative to a regular mouse. Your mouse looks to have a larger thumb ball than the one I was using, which would help but wouldn’t be enough (I think). To be honest, I prefer the deck trackpads to that thumb ball mouse I was using.

              • I’m biased, as I’ve used thumb trackballs since the 90s (did also use regular mice and trackpads). There isn’t a lot of choice in trackballs nowadays when it comes to the big names, but there are few little known brands that still provide solid choices for gaming.

                Even newbies to both, within hours thumb trackball should be superior to a trackpad imo though.

                • 43 minutes

                  My issue was that by default it wasn’t sensitive enough, requiring a much longer time and lots of lifted thumb time to move the cursor across the screen, especially across multiple monitors. But when I turned the sensitive up a lot, I started having trouble having the precision needed to click small buttons. A nicer trackball might have enough weight and smooth enough action to “fling” it, which I could see working, but the one I had didn’t work for that.

                  The deck trackpads have a larger contact surface that the thumb ball I used, and have pretty predictable “fling” ability which helps them move large distances easily while still being reasonably precise.

                  The fingerball I used was much larger, and I found it easier to have a suitably high sensitivity while still being accurate enough. Although over several months of use I never quite got to the same ease of use as my preferred mouse setup, and the actual shape of the fingerball body was too flat which was ironically unergonomic for extended use.

                  In the end I went back to using a mouse. I did realize that I kinda use my mouse like a big trackball though, I keep the base of my palm in a fixed location on the desk, and do the majority of moving the mouse by moving it around with my fingers. The sensitivity is pretty high, but using it this way gives me pretty precise control without any ergonomic issues.

        • 6 hours

          That works, but my preferred setup for controller shooters is gyro+flickstick. I don’t think the trackpad would be as good for flickstick.

    • It’s the Gaben effect. It’s like how everyone overlooks that steam is a game store sucking profits out of the industry like all the other big ones or that Gaben owns a billion dollars worth of boats.

      It’s just an over priced controller. Steam should start selling clothes so people can go around looking like those obnoxious Ferrari guys. I’d love to see valves marketing budget, it must be massive.

      Steam deck before the price hike was definitely a good buy, this though is just fluff.

      • Don’t like it, then don’t buy it. I find it hilarious that people call it overpriced, but can’t show me a cheaper controller with the same features.

        • but can’t show me a cheaper controller with the same features.

          can they show you any controller with the same features?