I’m sure it’s a great controller, but for me personally it’s just way too expensive. Also, I’m never gonna use the trackpads outside of a Steam Deck.
I’d consider my current controller (GameSir Supernova) to be the best one I’ve ever used. For the price of one Steam Controller I could get 2.5 of those. It also comes with a very convenient charging station, which you can plug the receiver into, and then it’s a 2-in-1.
I rarely criticize Valve, but their recent pricing is out of this world. I have no idea what their profit margins are on these devices, but I just cannot imagine them being competitive.
As much as I love my og LCD Deck, I’d never buy it at the current price. Same for the controller.
The current Deck pricing is probably out of their hands, memory prices are crazy. It’s not just Valve, the Lenovo legion go handhelds went up by about $400 for the 16GB models and $600-700 for the 32GB models. The Asus ROG/Xbox handhelds haven’t increased in price yet, but I suspect that probably means they either overestimated demand or were able to negotiate a fixed price contract before prices got crazy. Either way they’ll probably shoot up soon as well.
The controller has less reason to be expensive, although it does have several premium features beyond your normal controller. They priced it between something like an standard xbox controller ($65) and an xbox elite controller ($150-200), so in that context it doesn’t seem that bad.
I suspect that part of the problem is that they seem to have the steam machine bundled with the controller, or at least that seems to be an option. Presumably they’re keeping some controllers back so they can fulfil those orders.
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?
It’s The Verge, what were you expecting?
heh, fair. I guess I’m just rageing against the standard, and the fact that people both tolerate and spread the clealry disingenuous messaging around… It helps me maintain the last frayed thread of sanity I can claim.
They just take old Switch articles and swap out the names.
“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.
Well, on the one hand… having more demand than you can actually fulfill is the kind of problem most busineses would like to have…
Assuming they’re actually moving a lot of units.
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.
They are not. Sold out in 30 minutes. Lol.
You can sell out a loot of units in 30 minutes…
Bold of you to assume that you can’t sell out hundreds of thousands, if not millions of units in 30 minutes.
This man has never heard of bots
And bots don’t have to pay for goods or what are you trying to say?
Well the bots got the lion’s share, for sure. They’ll get the machines and frames too.
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.
So… no evidence?
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.
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
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.
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.
This worries me that this is foreshadowing the situation with the Steam Machine
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.
Oh they’re showing estimates now? Let’s check.
:(
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
Did everyone get a confirmation email?
I didn’t get any confirmation
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
That’s a good idea. I can do that. Thanks
Made my reservation just a bit after 1am on the 9th… :'(
You and I are in the same boat.
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.
I was imagining they just didn’t want to give too specific of estimates, so before September just means anytime between now and September (with September being the latest possible time you could get it). I guess we will see though, I imagine they definitely want stock to be able to ship with Machines though, so maybe they will slow out the amount they send out.
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, 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.
Or maybe you’ll get the link tomorrow and it will ship alarmingly fast like mine! ¯\(ツ)/¯
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 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.
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.
You can now see the estimated delivery date on the Steam Controller page!
“December, 2026.” Well Merry Christmas to me, I guess! :p
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 didn’t think to reserve it before the 12th. So mine says 2027. I just thought they’d meet demand.
I made my reservation on May 9th and it shows December.
same here.
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’m very happy I managed to snag one. For anyone waiting: it’ll be worth it.
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 on May 15th, and mine says 2027 ship date. “Some” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that title.
Seems valve really cocked up the launch if the first orders are going to take more than 6 months to fill.
They got the first shipment of manufactured controllers - one estimate is around 40k based on some import data - and sold them out in minutes, then started taking backorders.
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.
Sad, mine is in 2027 and I got in on day 2 when they opened pre-orders as I missed initial announcement.
I can wait. There’s no rush
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.
