Valve is so behind on Steam Controller orders that some won’t ship until 2027
4 days ago by Fubarberry to c/steamdeck
Non-paywall link: https://archive.is/73XhB
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You can now see the estimated delivery date on the Steam Controller page!
I made my reservation on May 9th and it shows December.
I didn't think to reserve it before the 12th. So mine says 2027. I just thought they'd meet demand.
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 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.
Did everyone get a confirmation email?
I didn't get any confirmation
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.
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.
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 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.
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... :(
The longer the controller has been out, the less hyped I have become about it. At this point, I'm probably gonna end up in the future buying some other controller and calling it good.
Definitely need something better than my PowerA switch controller since I don't like how the triggers and bumpers are all or nothing, but I've basically lost all hype for a Steam controller.
People that require a controller for their living room pc are the target market. Or those that want to prioritize inputs over anything else.
Otherwise, there are many cheaper alternatives. There are also many more premium controller out their.
Scarcity may have saved you from holding a awkward symmetrical sticks controller with two giant trackpads that need SteamInput to be useful.
The deck and this thing will be garbage for couch play. You ain't wrong though.
I've been playing tons of games with this on my couch, currently playing RE9, and I love it. Trackpad + gyro is an amazing combo for aiming with a controller. I've been wanting this exact controller for years since I got my Steam Deck andit was worth it, especially for couch play.
What makes you say that?
Resolution and on screen keyboard scaling work very poorly is the main culprit. It's highly inconsistent as well as the deck just not having enough GPU for 1080 screens. I've given up using it for gaming on the TV.
It's a really good controller, if you want trackpads/backbuttons/gyro/etc it's hard to beat. That said, it is just a controller. If you don't need those features you can definitely find other options.
You can look into the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless. It is what I use, comes with a charging dock, TMR sticks, and I’m sure some other things you might like.
I liked it so much I got two more for my friends who really liked how the sticks felt. It was $60 when I got them all. :-)
In was looking into something like an 8BitDo or seeing how good Turtle Beach is.
I’m sorry I didn’t realize before, but happy cake day! 🎂
I haven’t used Turtle Beach since the 360, so I can’t give you much there. I’ve had the 8BitDo since before Christmas last year and it is solid!
The dock holds the USB receiver so it works both on Fedora and Windows when I switch between them. Steam seems to recognize it as its own thing, and if you hold the B button when taking it off the dock or using the middle power button, it’ll switch to SDL mode and allow you to map the back paddles and the extra top bumper buttons to whatever you want! Plus the gyro stuff, but I don’t use that.
Hopefully that helps you a little more in your search! LTT (LinusTechTips) did a video on YouTube about a few third party controllers. You might watch that also to see if one of the controllers they show in that video suits your needs more! :-)
I forgot I even set cake day to this day. Not gonna lie, it's probably a random date I set because I don't want other knowing my real cake day.
Thanks for the info, too.
If you just want a new controller, look into the Gamesir brand. TMR sticks and hall effect triggers.
I completely forgot about the reservation and only got it in 4 hours later. Estimated is December 2026.
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.
Can the Vader 5 Pro just use Steam Input? I thought there was an "Allow Third Party Apps to take over" setting.
I was looking at one of those but not having Steam Input would be a deal breaker. I am so tired of expensive hardware having shite software. It isn't a hard problem to solve - they just don't want to
Yes that setting does exist, and it does work by letting Steam directly take over control of all the extra buttons on the controller... HOWEVER. It does a really bizarre thing where Steam will see multiple instances of the controller, one is the "correct" one, another is a basic Xbox 360 controller, and if you happen to power cycle the controller while Steam is running, then often the controller will not work at all anymore until you shut down Steam, then power cycle the controller again, then start up Steam again. I've seen other people reporting even more duplicates in Steam too, potentially based on whether you've installed Steam's extended Xbox controller driver? Not totally sure.
Also, while Steam is open, the controller doesn't work at all with any games not launched through Steam (game pass games, other launchers, etc.). There are workarounds for this, but still annoying.
It is supported in ReWASD now, but I think that gets fiddly when you have ReWASD and Steam running at the same time; I haven't really tried a proper setup in ReWASD yet.
Overall, just a very frustrating and inconsistent experience. When it's working, I really love it, but then there are nights where I spend 3 hours troubleshooting instead of just playing games.
Hmm okay you've given me a lot to think about. Thank you for this. I really appreciate the honesty
It’s an amazing pc controller. The motion contols, touch pads, joysticks, and haptics are all amazing.
The only downside it the steam requirement.
It does not require steam
Requirement? How so? Traditionally you can Mao any old controller for a game manually if you must. It pairs with my desktop on Bluetooth no problem.
Requirement? How so? Traditionally you can Mao any old controller for a game manually if you must. It pairs with my desktop on Bluetooth no problem.
Are Gamers Nexus and other lying when they said that the controller acts are mouse without Steam? I don't have one but that's exactly how Steam Deck's controls work.
It definitely does this. But why would that matter. The computer sees joy sticks and buttons. You can map accordingly?
I think there was software released from one of the Valve developers a week after the controller released, that makes it possible to use the controller outside of the Steam environment.
Neat! I’ll have to look into that. I know that it would work without some of the features but they’re kind of the selling point of the controller.
Depends on what you play. IIRC like the original steam controller, it's better at playing non controller games than any other controller is. If you are just using it for games with full controller support anyway then I doubt there is as much of a difference.
I got 2 Xbox series controllers. The joy sticks are way better on the steam controller. And there's more buttons. I think I still prefer the Xbox controls layout but I get why valve did it the way they did because of the touch pads, and its such a minor complaint and I'd rather have the extra control options the steam controller offers.
If you're using it like an Xbox controller, it doesn't matter which one you buy. Steam Controller is about all the inputs that Xbox (or others) don't have, such as trackpads, touch sensitive sticks and gyroscope.
This combination is unique on the market and I wouldn't play most games with a controller without. Especially first person games.
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”.
I reserved maybe an hour after they opened up and I got mine the other day.
No fair 😭
I believe it is anytime from now until September, with September being the latest possible date you will get it.
I'm actually baffled who buys all of these controllers? If you're windows user you have a plethora of options in all price brackets. I wanted to buy steam controller because of Linux compatibility (Reverse engineered Xbox controller driver likes to shit itself from time to time)
Why everyone else just suddenly needs This new controller is just beyond me
The old steam controller was loved by many and has always been praised by its very enthusiastic user base. With Valve proving their worth as a hardware vendor to the masses via the steam deck, I'm not surprised the controller is as popular as it is. I hope you manage to get one!
I want something that works instead of PS5 Bluetooth that cuts off when I put it under my desk. It's a first class controller designed for pc that just works. It also has other cool things like never dying.
I found that disabling my motherboard's Bluetooth and using a dongle improved that situation dramatically. I suspect all the EMI plus a steel desktop case was a big contributor.
I've experimented with Xbox controller on Bluetooth, and it wasn't a good experience. I did some research and it looks like it's because Microslop decided to ignore the bloetooh specs - controller doesn't signal required bandwidth, so BT driver defaults to the lowest one. If you force driver to faster transmission rate, it will work better, but all other devices that support lowest speed only won't work
If you’re windows user you have a plethora of options in all price brackets. I wanted to buy steam controller because of Linux compatibility (Reverse engineered Xbox controller driver likes to shit itself from time to time)
8bitdo and similar controllers work absolutely fine under Linux. No idea where your Linux compatibility thing comes from.
8bitdo
First time I hear about this company. I have no idea if they're trust worth, and If they make a solid product that won't break two months after warranty expires.
What? They're probably the biggest 3rd party game controller vendor. They moved to hall effect before even the 1st party companies had those in their elite controllers.
Also, regular Xbox also work fine under Linux. The only thing that needs the reverse engineered community driver is that wireless dongle because it can pair multiple controllers. USB and Bluetooth are absolutely fine for pretty much every controller under Linux. The dongle 8bitdo uses is for a single controller, so it acts like a regular controller that was connected with a USB cable.
Maybe they're known in US, but I never seen them in EU.
USB and Bluetooth are absolutely fine for pretty much every controller under Linux.
USB yes, Bluetooth no - BT has by design considerable input lag, and in case Xbox controller it was even worse.
Reverse engineered xone driver for dongle fails every few kernel updates. I know, I used it for like two years. After few months of not using the game pad you find that it doesn't work, you need to install new version of the driver IF it's available, if not you have to downgrade kernel. Fuck this experience. I want things to work out of the box.
Yeah. They probably are a factor too
I'm lucky that my brother managed to get a steam controller, but realised he didn't really need it, so instead of waiting until 2027, I got one of the first batches
There's gonna be a lot of people selling their Xbox and other controllers though soon
Almost every third party controller these days uses Hall effect or TMR.
It's hyped because it's sTeAm and scalpers.
I sweat they do this limited inventory on purpose for the news coverage
There's no other controllers with touchpad other than dualsense I could find. And dual sense didn't work for me very well on steam
That's why people want it. I looked extensibly.... I'm used to gaming on keyboard or mouse so I figured I'm better on touchpad than sticks
And why would they need the press coverage into 2027? Id expect they'd prefer sales, where the money could be used for marketing.They already have products like steam frame which will generate media attention later this year
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.
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
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). Other than Nintendo compatibility it's basically the same as Ultimate 2 Wireless. 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, no charging cradle).
A friend of mine has KingKong 2 Pro Controller by Gulikit which is now 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.
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.
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.
Combination of gyro and trackpads is an option for gyro, though it takes some getting used to. Essentially I think use the trackpad for the main looking around and then the gyro is the last step and allows for mouse level precision.
That works, but my preferred setup for controller shooters is gyro+flickstick. I don't think the trackpad would be as good for flickstick.
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?
So use KB+M?
You heard the him, boys, cancel your orders, you are doing wrong.
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.
Ever tried one of these? Putting thumb trackball together with trackpads is a bit much lol! Lap Setup
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.
Honestly would love one of these controllers but a limiting factor for me is how universal it can be, a friend nabbed one on preorder says you can only really use it on steam with limited support outside of steam. Got one of those gamesir pros instead, same price, no wait, universal usable on pc
Without steam it defaults to doing a combination of keyboard and mouse inputs, meant to let people use a desktop. Idea is you could boot up computer, and then be able to navigate the computer to launch steam/etc.
You do have options for playing games from outside of steam:
- add games as a non-steam game to steam, allows managing inputs/etc.
- any games that use SDL will have native steam controller support (many emulators etc)
- software like Steamless controller (windows) or SISR (windows or linux) allow you to use the controller outside of steam, allowing different levels of input customization.
edit: removed sc-controller because it's apparently not updated for the new steam controller yet
What else do you want to use it for? For me the coolest feature is the ability to play mouse games on a couch. For other consoles I think either 1st party controller or a good 8bido would defeat steam controller despite it being really awesome
"Behind"
100% what this actually means is valve is only making them in limited to supply to lengthening the time they take losses.
Valve ain't making money on decks, they ain't going to make money on the controllers, and they are going to take a bloody red bath on the machines.
Y'all need to read between the lines. It's a controller. It ain't hard to make.
They increased the price of the steam deck quite a bit. Doubt they're not making money off of it.
You clearly haven't watched the other billionaires run at losses for years.
Steam is very happy to lose money on consoles to keep their 30% cut and monopoly.
You're forgetting that it's just a computer, and can it can be reformatted, and you can install any OS on it to do anything with it. It's not locked to the Steam Store in any way. It's not like a console where they can sell it at a loss and make money on games later because console companies make it impossible for you to use it as a normal computer. Steam does not.
And yet someone who buys a steam branded computer is specifically highly likely to buy more games from steam. Yes, feel free to buy a cheaper computer with the same specs and never buy from steam ever. You're not the target of this product.
That has nothing to do with my point. I'm saying that, given the current price (and age), of the steam deck, I doubt that they're losing money on it.
I disagree. They already had thin margins, they started it themselves. Then prices went up and they sold at a loss. The recent increase was because they couldn't take more of a bath. This excludes the tens of millions of dollars they have had to pump in you Linux.
I have no doubt until I see data otherwise they are breaking even at best.
I doubt they are earning as much as you think.
They jam packed it full of shit that nobody needs like capacitive Joysticks, and capacitive touchpads on the bottom.
I think people are forgetting that the steam machine is going to ship with a controller as well. I think they have to split their controller production between people buying just the controller and the amount of steam machines they are producing as they get ready to launch that.
@sopuli.xyz
A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
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[Controller] - Steam Controller related.
[Machine] - Steam Machine related.
[Frame] - Steam Frame related.
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
If your post is only relevant to one hardware device (Deck/Machine/Frame/etc) please specify which one as part of the title or by using a device flair.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
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- Have fun.
go to feed...
@sopuli.xyz
A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.
As Lemmy doesn't have flairs yet, you can use these prefixes to indicate what type of post you have made, eg:
[Flair] My post title
The following is a list of suggested flairs:
[Deck] - Steam Deck related.
[Controller] - Steam Controller related.
[Machine] - Steam Machine related.
[Frame] - Steam Frame related.
[Discussion] - General discussion.
[Help] - A request for help or support.
[News] - News about the deck.
[PSA] - Sharing important information.
[Game] - News / info about a game on the deck.
[Update] - An update to a previous post.
[Meta] - Discussion about this community.
If your post is only relevant to one hardware device (Deck/Machine/Frame/etc) please specify which one as part of the title or by using a device flair.
These are not enforced, but they are encouraged.
Rules:
- Follow the rules of Sopuli
- Posts must be related to Steam Hardware or Steam OS in an obvious way.
- No piracy, there are other communities for that.
- Discussion of emulators are allowed, but no discussion on how to illegally acquire ROMs.
- This is a place of civil discussion, no trolling.
- Have fun.
go to feed...
Well, on the one hand... having more demand than you can actually fulfill is the kind of problem most busineses would like to have...
save