The premiere of the new Steam controller was not without controversy. The devices immediately disappeared and fell into the hands of scalpers. Now the company is introducing measures to prevent a repeat.
Buying a Steam Controller was more like a hunt than shopping for a gaming accessory. The first batch disappeared within a few dozen minutes, only to end up on auction sites at much higher prices after a while. Unfortunately, this is the reality that a product appears and goes to scalpers via bots.
Gabe Newell’s company apparently does not want a repeat of the chaos known from the premieres of graphics cards or new generation consoles. That’s why Valve has implemented a new purchase reservation system. To get a chance to purchase a Steam Controller, you must have an active Steam account and make a purchase on it before April 27. Additionally, there is a limit of one item per user and the need to confirm the order within three days of receiving the e-mail. And it looks like this is just the beginning.
Valve declares war on scalpers
The Steam code dug out by vigilant users revealed clear traces of the reservation system for four variants of Steam Machine and two versions of the Steam Frame VR goggles. This is almost a copy of the solution that Valve introduced with the gamepad. Therefore, we will have simple rules that will effectively cut off armies of bots and newly created accounts.
Thanks to this, players will not have to overpay, and the equipment will go into the hands of those who really want to play with it and not trade it like stocks. Leaks suggest that Steam Machine will appear in 512 GB and 2 TB versions, but the four entries in the code probably also mean a 1 TB variant and a set with a controller in the box.
Steam Frame, the new generation of VR glasses, also seems to be well protected against speculators. Valve is clearly testing a sales model in which loyalty pays off, and at the same time collecting data on how many active users dream of joining the hardware ecosystem. The release date is still shrouded in mystery, but an earlier shipment report suggests that Steam Machine could launch sooner than we think.
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