May 4 was more than just Star Wars Day–it was also the day a bunch of people tried and failed to purchase a new Steam Controller. Many prospective buyers were met with error messages when trying to check out, and were left without one of the fancy new devices. However, Valve is giving you another chance on May 8, so make sure you’re ready.
The Steam Controller will be available for preorder on May 8 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, and Valve is changing the process a little bit in an attempt to make it less painful. In order to qualify for a preorder, you must have an account in good standing on Steam already, and you must have purchased a game prior to April 27, 2026. This means new bot accounts will not be eligible to purchase a controller.
Only one Steam Controller will be available per user, and this also means you cannot buy one if you already did during the first drop on May 4.
“Once you receive an order email, you have three days (72 hours) to make your purchase on Steam,” Valve said in the official announcement.
Our own Tamoor Hussain recently took the Steam Controller through its paces to see if it’s worth the steep $100 price tag–check it out above. It remains to be seen exactly when Valve’s Steam Machine system will launch, but we can only assume that there will be quite a bit of overlap in userbase for the two devices.
