Steam Users Issued With Warning Hours Before New Hardware Launch

Steam users have been issued with a major warning hours before the Steam Controller is due to launch.

Last week, Valve announced its brand new iteration of the Steam Controller will be open for orders on 4 May, sometime today.

However, users are being issued a major warning ahead of the release of the new hardware, as it could affect how easy or difficult it is to grab one before stock runs out.

As one user by the name of @HardwareSteam on X (formerly Twitter) points out, with thousands of users trying to make a purchase of the controller at the same time, there may be slow issues with payment processors.

“For anyone buying it, I suggest you add $110 to your Steam Wallet now,” SteamHardware writes. “When thousands of people are trying to make a purchase at once, in the past that’s brought card issues, so the best thing to do is to use your Steam Wallet instead. Keep in mind additional costs!”

However, other users are also reporting issues adding Steam Wallet funds to their accounts, with some claiming that the credit in the wallet is showing as “pending”, which can take up to three business days to complete.

“I decided to add funds and it’s pending,” writes one user. “Steam says it could take 72 hours. I have a feeling it could go through faster than that but I really hope it doesn’t end up being pending when the controller launches.”

In any case, we’d advise adding the funds to your wallet as soon as possible, and waiting out any potential pending transactions before making the purchase.

The Steam Controller is due to go on sale at 6PM BST, which is around 7 hours from now, so that’s plenty of time to add the cash to your account.

Steam Controller Stock Is Expected To Be Low During Initial Release Window

Of course, beware that stock is going to be quite limited during the initial release window. It’s likely that all Steam Controllers will likely sell out within a couple of hours.

More stock will be expected in the coming days and weeks, so don’t be disheartened if you don’t manage to snag one during the first wave.

The latest generation of the Steam Controller is the second iteration of the hardware by Valve, following the original 2015 hardware.

It’s designed for use with any device that utilises Steam, and will function with both controller-supported games and those with keyboard and mouse controls.

In addition to the standard inclusion of joysticks, face buttons, and triggers, the Steam Controller features four grip buttons, two haptic input pads, and gyro controls for additional support.

Designed for use with Steam Input—a feature of Steam which allows you to change the controls of any game—the controller will be perfect for anyone who uses a controller to play their PC games, and also wants to use it with games that don’t have gamepad support.

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