The Steam Controller sold out in 30 minutes, utterly breaking Steam in the process

Team Fortress Spy being shocked — (Image credit: Valve)

Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines, and ~~brother I hurt people,~~ a Valve hardware launch brought Steam to its knees. A half hour after launch, the Steam Controller has already sold out after seriously borking the Steam Store. Fifteen minutes later? A sliver of hope as it showed fresh stock once more, only to immediately sell out again (if it wasn't a mirage in the first place).

Downdetector shows a massive spike in error reports right around the 1 PM Eastern, 10 AM Pacific launch time of the Steam Controller, while anecdotally, the Steam Store was a minefield. I have the error message, "There seems to have been an error initializing or updating your transaction. Please wait a minute and try again or contact support for assistance," seared into my eyeballs at this point.

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I think we all anticipated this would happen, given the early rush to secure Steam Decks all the way back in 2022, but like everyone out there trying to bag a day one Steam Controller, I figured I was built different—unspecified millions of people who successfully bought a controller clearly were built different.

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Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.