Join The Club
Steam Controller launched on Tuesday in Australia and promptly sold out. It's perhaps not surprising, but it sure is annoying. As a result of the rush—and to combat opportunistic resellers—Valve has announced it will kick off a reservation queue for the next drop.
The queue will reopen tomorrow, May 9 at 3am AEST. Yes, that's a somewhat inconvenient time to reserve your placement in a digital queue, but Australians should be used to this. Keep in mind it's a queue: getting in line at 3:01am tomorrow morning won't mean you'll have your controller immediately, but it'll mean you'll get one before everyone else.
As per Valve, reservations may take a while to fulfil in Australia. "Replenishment of inventory will vary from region to region. We will start fulfilling reservations next week in the US / Canada, and UK / EU / AU in the following weeks."
Only one Steam Controller can be reserved per Steam account, and once you've received the order email you'll need to make the purchase within 72 hours. Also, if you've already bought a Steam Controller, you're not eligible to be a part of this queue: sorry, it's everyone else's turn.
As Ted Litchfield pointed out earlier today, this is the same process Valve resorted to when the Steam Deck was first launched. It's obviously not as convenient as buying something and expecting it to ship immediately, but then, if it means controllers fall into the hands of actual users and not eBay resellers, it's definitely for the best.
The Steam Controller costs AU$149 in Australia, with shipping included. Valve didn't specify exactly where the reservation page will be, but my best guess is on the Steam Controller listing.
