Valve is opening a reservation queue for the Steam Controller on Friday, May 8 at 10 AM Pacific. This move comes after the controller sold out within 30 minutes of its launch on May 4 and appeared on resale sites with markups ranging from 100% to 461%. The reservation system is intended to prioritize legitimate buyers and includes account restrictions to limit scalper access.

Valve acknowledged the launch issues in a post on Steam, noting that while they saw a high level of interest, many users found the buying experience frustrating.

How Valve’s Steam Controller Reservation Queue Works

Once reservations open, users enter a queue and are assigned a place based on the order in which they reserved. When stock becomes available, order confirmation emails are sent out in the same sequence. Recipients have 72 hours to complete the purchase through Steam after receiving the email. Each Steam user can reserve only one Steam Controller.

Customers who already received a Steam Controller during the May 4 launch are not eligible to reserve another at this time.

Steam’s Anti-Scalper Requirements And When Will Valve Start Fulfilling Controller Reservations

To prevent scalpers from creating new accounts to flood the queue, Valve has set two requirements for accounts. First, the Steam account must be in good standing. Second, the account must have made a purchase on Steam before April 27, 2026.

These conditions exclude new accounts and those without prior purchase history, which were mainly used for scalper-driven bulk orders during the May 4 launch.

Valve plans to start fulfilling reservations as early as next week in the United States and Canada. Reservations in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia will be processed in the following weeks. No specific delivery dates have been announced. The reservation system aims to address bots causing sellouts but does not tackle the underlying supply issues.

Valve has not provided a detailed production timeline or indicated how long it will take to clear the reservation queue.