Valve has begun sending reservation emails to those on the Steam controller waiting list, giving eligible buyers the chance to complete their purchases. those in the first wave have till 18th may To confirm their orders; If they do not do so, the reservation is canceled and the place is given to the next person in line.
The first batch of controllers started arriving this week. After the controller sold out in less than 30 minutes early on May 4, Valve launched a reservation system on May 8.
How to Claim Your Steam Controller Reservation
Everyone with a reservation should check their email and spam folders. Reports from the r/Steamcontroller subreddit indicate that Valve is not sending reminder messages. Missing the purchase window means losing the reservation completely.
The purchase window is currently 72 hours from the time the email is received. Once confirmed and paid for, fulfillment is expected to begin first in the United States and Canada, followed by the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia in the coming weeks.
Reservation systems generally operate in a chronological manner but are not strictly ordered. For example, a Reddit user made a reservation at 9:59am PST on May 8 and received an email, while another user who reserved at the same time has not yet received an email.
A third user reportedly reserved 40 seconds before the official window opened and is still waiting. Valve has not publicly disclosed how the emails are being sent. The Steam Deck reservation rollout in 2022 experienced similar inconsistencies, which were attributed to server batching, regional processing, and the way email queues were managed.
What does the reservation system mean for late buyers?
The reservation does not expire if a user is not in the current wave. Anyone who is still waiting remains in the queue for future batches. Valve has not announced when the next batches will be shipped or how long it will take to clear the full reservation queue.
Resale prices on eBay remain high, with Steam Controller listings well above the retail price of $99. Anti-scalper requirements introduced with the reservation system, such as requiring a Steam account to be in good standing for purchases before April 27, 2026, are limiting secondary market activity but not stopping it.
The Steam Controller was launched on May 4 at a retail price of $99. It has TMR magnetic thumbsticks, dual trackpads, gyro support, four rear grip buttons, and a puck accessory that serves as both a charger and a 2.4GHz wireless receiver.
