If you’re rocking a gaming PC rather than one of the best consoles, chances are that you tried and failed to buy Valve’s latest plaything. Thankfully, there’s a Steam Controller stock update which brings some hope to gamers who failed to nab one after they sold out on their first release date.
Valve has announced that it will open reservations for the second wave of Steam Controller sales on 8 May at 1pm ET / 6pm BST. Instead of another free-for-all launch, buyers will join a reservation queue and be contacted in order when it’s their turn to purchase.
Valve’s also limiting things pretty aggressively. You’ll only be able to buy one controller per account, and anyone who already grabbed one during the first wave won’t be eligible this time around. Once selected, buyers will have 72 hours to complete their order before losing their slot.
It’s a refreshingly sensible approach. Hardware launches have been plagued with armies of scalper bots, as anyone who’s tried and failed to buy a GPU at launch can attest to. At least this way, people have more of a fair chance.
If you’re not sure what the hype is about, the new Steam Controller carries over the Steam Deck’s deeply customisable control system, allowing players to remap almost every button and input however they want. Even better, custom layouts created on Steam Deck transfer directly to the controller automatically.
The hardware itself is also packed with unusual extras. There are trackpads designed to offer mouse-style controls along with traditional joysticks, four rear buttons, capacitive Grip Sense sensors built into the handles, and a low-latency 2.4GHz wireless puck that magnetically snaps onto the controller for charging and storage. Valve says the battery can deliver more than 35 hours of gameplay.
If that all sounds good to you, then I wish you the best of luck on 8 May, when the Steam Controller is back in stock. Happy gaming.
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