Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Valve releases a highly anticipated piece of hardware, it’s actually quite good, and within thirty minutes, the only place you can find one is on eBay for three times the MSRP. Well….add the Steam Controller to the list.
Welcome to 2026. Same as it ever was.
The new Steam Controller (let’s call it the V2, even if Valve is being coy) officially went on sale last night. Priced at £85, it promises to be the ultimate bridge between the Steam Deck’s touch-sensitive goodness and a traditional living-room setup.
The “official” stock lasted exactly 30 minutes in some areas. With the US selling really swiftly, followed by other countries.
We managed to snag ours in that first 45 minute window, but it wasn’t without some serious clicking until the payment methods would initialise.
The Scalper Tax
If you missed that half-hour window, you’re now looking at the Scalper Psoriasis currently infecting eBay. Listings are already clearing £150 in the UK, while our friends across the pond are seeing prices hit $300 (against a $99 MSRP).
It’s frustrating, but not surprising. With the Steam Machine (Valve’s upcoming living-room PC) still lingering in “coming soon” limbo and facing delays due to RAM shortages, the Steam Controller was meant to be the appetizer.
Instead, it’s become another trophy for the bot-runners to flip for a profit.
Why Do We Care?
For the uninitiated, the original Steam Controller was a “love it or hate it” experimental peripheral. One we wish we got a hold of, especially as we’ve tried over and over to use the Steam Link more regularly.
This new iteration, however, seems to have learned all the right lessons from the Steam Deck. It’s got the dual trackpads, the back buttons, and the haptics that make playing PC-centric genres like RTS or 4X games on a sofa actually viable.
It’s the piece of the puzzle many of us at Dying Art Media and Indie-Cent Exposure have needed to really sit on the sofa to play PC games.
The Bigger Picture
The real concern here isn’t just the Steam Controller. It’s a bellwether for the Steam Machine itself.
Industry analysts are already pointing out that if Valve can’t get a handle on their supply chain (and if the eventual console launches north of £500) it risks being a “niche PC” rather than the console-killer we want it to be.
If you didn’t snag one in the first wave, don’t give the scalpers your money. Valve is usually decent at restocking eventually (remember the early Deck days?), and £150 for a gamepad (no matter how many haptic motors it has) is a tough pill to swallow.
Keep your eyes on the Steam Store, and keep your wallet closed to the eBay leeches. We’ll have a full review of the hardware once we can get our hands on our Steam Controller, and we’ve played Mewgenics on the sofa with a big screen.
Steam Controller
Supply, scalpers and everything else aside. This is a potential first footing into the living room. A market that Valve has been working on for ages.
Moreover, news of hardware selling out, whilst disappointing, shows demand for a product. That only piques interest, anyway. The Steam Controller and furore around it will likely do more good than harm.
We’ll do our best to properly review it and put it through it’s paces. From what we’ve seen by those who got review units, it’s a solid, premium controller.
The Steam Controller is cheaper than those crazy-priced Dualsense Edge controllers, and by all accounts as good, and delivering better features.
Time will tell for the Steam Controller, and we’ll do as we always do. We’ll be honest, and we’ll write about it for all to read at their own leisure.
