Valve's Steam Controller launched Monday May 4 at 1 PM Eastern for $99 and disappeared in 30 minutes flat. The controller is still out of stock Tuesday morning May 5 across the US, UK, Canada, and Europe. Meanwhile, scalpers flooded eBay with listings at $300, a 200% markup over Valve's price.
The sellout crashed Steam's payment system within minutes of launch. Thousands of buyers got hit with the error "There seems to have been an error initializing or updating your transaction. Please wait a minute and try again or contact support for assistance."
Even people with money already loaded in their Steam Wallet couldn't get through. Users reported spam-clicking the purchase button for 20 to 40 minutes just trying to complete an order.
Shipping estimates went from 3-5 business days to 6-10 days before the page switched to "Out of Stock." Some buyers spotted brief moments when the controller flashed back into stock, but those windows lasted under a minute before selling out again.
David Adubiina
When You Can Actually Buy a Steam Controller
Valve confirmed restocks are coming but didn't give a date. The company told PC Gamer "We have knobs we can turn to try to get things to people faster" about ramping up production.
To get notified when stock returns, add the Steam Controller to your Steam wishlist for email alerts or follow @valvesoftware on Twitter where Valve announces restocks first. The controller is sold exclusively through Steam's store, not Amazon or Best Buy.
Why Scalpers Are Charging $300 on eBay Right Now
The Steam Controller's instant sellout created a feeding frenzy on eBay. Tom's Hardware confirmed dozens of sold listings above $200, with some "confirmed order" listings asking $330.
That means scalpers are reselling successful Steam orders before they've even received the physical product, which won't ship for several days.
Valve limited purchases to two controllers per account, but that didn't stop resellers from capitalizing on the shortage. The Steam Deck is also completely sold out, every variant from the 1TB OLED to the 256GB LCD shows as unavailable.
Hardware tracker Brad Lynch reported tracking data showing shipments labeled "Game Console" arriving at Valve's warehouse last month and this month, fueling speculation that the delayed Steam Machine could launch soon.
Emmanuel Umahi
