Well...
Pity the poor PC of 1983-1984, before EGA graphics changed everything. It wasn't the graphics powerhouse we know today. IBM's machines, such as the IBM PC 5150, and their clones might have been the talk of the business world, but they were stuck with text-only displays or low-definition bitmap graphics.
The maximum color graphics resolution was 320 x 200 on a CGA graphics card, with colors limited to four from a hard-wired palette of 16. Even at the time, you'd have a hard time convincing someone that this was really the best graphics card you could buy. Worse, three of those colors were cyan, brown, and magenta, and half of them were just lighter variations of the other half.
You can see in the screenshot from The Secret of Monkey Island below that 16 colors make all the difference, with EGA on the left and four-color CGA on the right.
However, EGA had one big problem; it was prohibitively expensive, even in an era when PCs were already astronomically expensive. The basic EGA card price was over $500 (around $1,400 today), and the Memory Expansion Card cost a further $199.
Go for the full 192KB of RAM and you were looking at a total of nearly $1,000 (approximately $2,900 in today's money), making a top-end EGA card way more expensive than the GeForce RTX 4090 today. What's more, the monitor you needed to make the most of it cost a further $850 (approximately $2,500 today). EGA was a rich enthusiast's toy.
Yeah, but my 386 had a turbo button!
My first computer was a ZX81 with a mighty 1k RAM. Didn't do much with it. Then I got a Sinclair spectrum with 48k, you could do a lot with that. That's when gaming got good for me.
Yes, pioneering new tech is rough but that's pretty different than where we're at now.
Many people would be ecstatic to build a locost rig that's a couple generations out of date but even THAT hardware is obscenely priced.
Manfs are literally reviving previous-gen hardware and down-speccing their current offerings to try to ease pricing increases—shit's fucked.
Edit: Oh and scalpers. Scalpers too.
I'm starting to regret not getting one.
I mean, they aren't going to stop making them if there are people buying them. I'm sure that, at some point, there will be enough manufactured to catch up with demand.
2026 has been a pretty exasperating year to try to get ahold of a lot of pieces of hardware, I have to say.
I'm wondering if --- assuming Valve still is trying to release the Steam Machine this year, which according to the last news I've seen, they're still saying that they're going to do --- this shortage is gonna dick up their Steam Machine sales. I mean, the Steam Controller is a nice-to-have on a regular PC, but for people with a Steam Machine in the living room, they probably are going to want it even more --- like, there it's a lot more important to have the touchpads to replace a mouse, remote power-on capability, etc.
Probably quite a lot lol. But was the Steam Machine going to make senss for pre-existing PC owners at the OG price either? Ever since their announcement I've been convinced that it's targeted towards newbies getting into the scene as a good enough "just buy this one" kinda deal. Or maybe as a TV box for people with a good desktop already.
I was assuming $1000 CAD originally for the Machine, I'm gonna throw out a guess for funsies here of $1600 CAD now. So a bundle might be 1700. Total conjecture but I want it in writing if I'm accurate lol.
I have been assuming they had stock set aside for some kind of Machine + Controller bundle.
Could be --- I haven't seen news along those lines and the Steam Machine description on their website doesn't presently say anything about coming with a Steam Controller --- but I suppose that it's not unreasonable. But it's also worth remembering that they're probably aiming for the console market with the Steam Machine, and a lot of people use consoles for local multiplayer games and are probably going to want more than one controller for that.
Now, local multiplayer is less common among PC games than console games. But, especially with console ports, it's definitely out there.
https://store.steampowered.com/search?tags=7368&supportedlang=english&ndl=1
That says that there are 7,933 games currently on the Steam store that are tagged as Local Multiplayer.
$300 on ebay for completed listings like crazy. Why is anyone keeping these things vs taking $300 or even $200?
I was thinking about getting one, but then I read more about it and realised you can't really use it without the Steam client. Kind of put me off since I have a large part of my library on GOG. Maybe this won't be a problem in the future though.
Can't you add non-Steam games to Steam?
Not all work properly.
Pretty much any game with a launcher or a splash screen won’t work right.
There have been a number of posts on Lemmy about how to get it to work with non-Steam games, particularly if you also have Steam installed. This may be easier on Linux than on Windows.
Just to try to understand how bad this is, I reserved mine on May 8 at 18:48:30 +0000 (UTC) no email so far.
Did someone that reserved received an email? If yes, when did you reserve and when did you receive the email to order your controller?
Reserved it on the day it restocked. I don't think I got an email after reserving it, but I got one for it being available to buy on the 5.6.
If you check the reserve link it says it expects I'll be able to buy one in September.
I set an alarm on May 8th the moment they opened reservations. Got an email on June 11th asking for me to confirm my purchase details and submit an order. Submitted that day and then received the controller on June 17th.
do you mind to share your ETD offered by steam?
Reserved mine but am not as upset as other people seem. Glad steam is selling well and I just accept its a severe supply issue. I think its as the article says. They didnt anticipate this level of demand and theyre even trying to catch up in 2027.
A queue system really undercuts any scalper that would consider the controller a good target. There will of course be people without patience that could payout, but the larger market will just wait until their turn to order comes up. Seems like a bad investment for someone that relies on FOMO to profit.
When they initially went on sale, apparently scalpers flooded the thing. They put a reservation system in place for the Steam Controller to aim to defeat scalping. This new shortage is with that reservation system in place, limit on two Steam Controllers per account and the Steam account needs to be in good standing. Now, I guess it could be possible that scalpers went out and figured out how to defeat that, like having a number of people collude to purchase two each, so one can't say that there's no scalping...
EDIT: It looks like the going rate on eBay for a sealed-box Steam Controller 2.0 is about $300, so I imagine that that's what market rate is at current levels of supply. Some lower prices get down towards $200. Valve's selling them for $99.
I didn’t see their email to purchase - missed by a day. I’m now in the 2027 club 😅
I don’t need one, but the trackpads would make certain things a bit easier. Oh well.
The final window on display for the Steam Controller is simply marked “2027” with no specific release period for the device. Valve explains that it has “no plans to stop making” the controller, but the current demand has massively exceeded their internal estimations.
I really wonder if their estimates have taken into account scalpers and how to stop them.
I feel bad for anyone wanting one and not getting it. It feels so painful to read those comments. :-(
Valve was really dumb on the launch of the Steam Controller, without requiring anything and every bot and scalper could buy as many as they want. I can't believe they did not have any protection on! This is a major part in shortage of the Controllers I think. They had all the knowledge and tools learned from the Steam Deck launch. So... what I mean is Valve is handling the launch of Steam Machine differently then they did with the first batch of Steam Controller. Also the price is much higher and is no longer in the "impulse buy 2 of 'em" category.
And yet, I will be wrong, followed by a Steam Machine shortage.^^
You needed a Steam account of a certain age and some activity in the past. Sure, people immediately tried to resell them at ridiculous prices, but look up how many were offered and bought on eBay. It's a drop in the bucket. What they did fuck up was severely underestimating the demand. It shows that they usually deal with digital products.
For the launch of Steam Controller there was no restrictions on the Steam account of age or activity. After they got surprised, with the second batch next week, they started to implement the same account restrictions as they did on Steam Deck. And I believe the orders of first batch was the majority of controllers they had planned to sell in isolation without the Steam Machine and Frame. Now they have to restock and try to fill the demand that they also understimated.
The reason why you didn't see much on eBay was, because they were mass reported quickly from the Steam community. Because eBay has some rules that does not allow them sell products they don't yet have.
I'm a bit confused, I reserved mine on may 8th, and I didn't even get a notification that the steam controller is on sale again. Did I just somehow miss it or was my reservation too late?
If you look up your reservation it should have an "estimated ship date". So basically, it's not "really" on sale, but they're just slowly making there way through the reservations.
Oooh yeah it says september 2026, now I see it. Thanks!
The initial launch and first batch of Steam Controller was ... wait for it... "uncontrolled" badum tsh.
I reserved mine back in May and haven't received an email about it. Their announcement made it sound like I should expect something in '26 but when I look at my estimated time, it says not until '27. >:[
I had it on my wish list but decided to wait for the steam machine and see what the total out the door price for the console and controller would be. Unfortunately now the console is nowhere to be found and the controllers are back ordered until next year.
I was gifted an Xbox Elite 2 controller years ago and have already had to take it apart to lube up the bumper buttons. It’s a fine controller but they fail at an insanely high rate for the price. Bummer that the Steam Controller couldn’t get out the door on time.
I'm not a huge fan of how this controller looks
It’s a controller guys. There’s a hundred you can use on the PC.
None of them are a replacement for Steam Controller. I purchased one specifically because of the two trackpads, that I'm used to on my Steam Deck. I can use the same configuration on Steam Deck and Controller. Besides that, there are other technical reasons I'm not getting into. I have Xbox controllers and a modern 8bitdo Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller. I don't want to play Steam games without a Steam Controller (or Deck) ever again!
Mhm thanks I have all those, they’re great and all, but this one is different
(It sounds like I’m being sarcastic but I do actually have two of all modern first party controllers including two original steam controllers and I am psyched for the eventual arrival of my updated steam controller yay)
Including the ordering, manufacturing, delivery, and setup of new fabrication machines for the assembly line, hiring and training the operators, renegotiating the contracts with suppliers and shipping companies... I'd wager it's much longer than saying "make it so". Even if every single part is outsourced to a different manufacturer, doubling the production output is never as simple as laypeople think.
Kind of shocked, tbh. Their last controllers were pretty awful. I have two. I used them maybe 3 times before settling on PS/XBox controllers. And I'm not even a console gamer. I just bought a few PS and Xbox controllers cuz the Steam controller felt cheap and awkward.
Agreed
I feel like they carefully manufactured a low supply situation to keep price and expectations up.
It's not like a controller uses ddr5 ram or any high demand components. They didn't make more simply because they didn't want to.
Competitors have had over a decade to copy the track pad on controller idea. Also do you think it takes a genius to just cutout the screen on a steam deck? That's their whole design
But they haven't..
This isn't a luxury controller, and its priced lower than the Xbox Elite controllers. Furthermore, they're not taking preorders, so the sales aren't confirmed.
If they were selling them at 2.5x the price, it would make sense to maintain a level of "prestige" and luxury surrounding them.. They're not though, and the high demand already exists.
There are more likely specific chips on them that are constrained for now (because unlike Nintendo, they aren't using cheap garbage that drifts after 6 months and overpricing the controller)
If it was some marketing thing, you'd take refundable pre-orders.
I don't even know what you're arguing for right now.
I am just noting competition has 100% has over a decade to complete. The original steam controller had touchpads, and came out in 2015.
The deck control scheme is praised by many, and has been out for 4 years.
If the competition was interested. They would have bitten by now.
To me, it seems more like they didn't expect a 100€ controller to sell that well. I certainly wouldn't in this economy tbh.
Please don't be too sad or frustrated. I'm begging you guys to listen to reason.
This is an exact same scenario as the first steam controller. You could tell they completely rushed it to the finishing line, and they barely made enough to meet their pre-purchase obligations.
This round is going to have poor build quality, I can pretty much guarantee it, just wait until they iron out the production process, and they get into their second or third fabrication.
Also don't believe for a second that they're not going to ramp up production, the world doesn't work the way it did in the 90s, production ramps up insanely quick when there's demand.
I'm okay with not getting this version, and I'm also very trusting that when the next couple rounds are available it will be the time to buy.
I love people who make uneducated claims about products they don't know.
The first Steam Controller was a novelty and not appealing to many. Years later Valve basically perfected this controller scheme and added the missing parts of it to the Steam Deck handheld. Years later the Steam Controller 2 comes out, largely based on the excellent Steam Decks controls. It improves on the quality of various aspects, has even TMR sticks. Build quality does not feel like premium, but it feels better than your average controller.
The controller does not feel like rushed, at least the hardware itself. Software was not entirely there at launch, as it had missing features, but that was software. It is okay to be critical about a company or its products, but the critics need to be rooted in reality. It is not perfect. The biggest issue to me is, the reliance on Steam running in the background. That's why I still use a second gamepad to play anything outside Steam, without the client running in the background.
Overall I am glad that I didn't listen to your guarantee about its build quality and got fooled, because the build quality of the Steam Controller is not an issue. I hope you will get one later.
Nah, the build quality is absolutely impeccable. It feels rock solid in every way.
I have many complaints about the steam controller. Build quality isn’t one of them.
The fuck you on about 😆
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I'm still extremely sour about having one in my cart within 30 seconds of the page going live but the checkout process just failing.
save