Normally, May 4th is a cause for celebration, as millions of Star Wars fans pay tribute to the long-running franchise. However, this particular May 4th has been the cause of disappointment and panic, as the successor to Valve's Vapor Controller has been officially released into the ether, and subsequently sold out.
Initially, the Steam Controller, which retails for $99, had a launch time of 10:00 am PT on Steam's site, where users could purchase one and have it shipped to an address of their choice.
However, as is usually the case with online drops, the Steam controller actually went live a few minutes before that, sending users into a frenzy to try and secure it.
By about 10:30 a.m. PT, the initial wave of controllers had gone out of stock.
But, after about 10 minutes or so, it was back in stock, probably due to automatic order cancellation due to incorrect payment verification.
Since then, though, the controller appears to have “officially” gone out of stock on Valve's site, where a “Buy it now!” A large “out of stock” button has been taken. The button sits normally.
Still, as frustrating as it may be, don't give up hope, because there may be a solution that will allow you to get hold of a Steam controller, or, at the very least, get really close, closer than you would otherwise be.
Steam Deck is the first of many RAM shortage tragedies in video games
Valve's handheld is currently out of stock due to RAM and memory shortages.
If you have patience and finger strength, spamming may be your best bet
To get started, you'll want to make sure you're logged into your Steam account on desktop. From there, you'll want to refresh the official store page (https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steamcontroller) until the “Out of Stock” button is now “Buy Now!” button.
Once you add it to your cart and proceed to checkout, there's a good chance you'll be hit with one of two disclaimers.
first – Sorry, we are experiencing a high volume of purchase requests and your transaction could not be completed. Please try again in a few minutes – You know the servers are getting overloaded.
Second – Your order cannot be fulfilled because one or more items in your cart are currently out of stock. Please try again later – You know the controller is out of stock. What it doesn't do is take you out of the checkout screen entirely.
In any case, you'll want to keep spamming that green “Continue” button in high heaven. Because, at some point, as TheGamer experienced for himself, it will actually allow you to purchase a controller.
From there, it's a simple checkout screen and a final order email.
Again, there's no guarantee you'll get a controller, but this will get you pretty close.
“It took forever to spam it to work, but persistence paid off,” wrote one user on Reddit. “Saw it coming though.”
As expected, the nature of the whole thing has upset fans, and given how many times it's happened with so many pre-orders, regardless of industry, can we blame them?
- Date of establishment
-
August 24, 1996
- Subsidiaries
-
Campo Santo
- Headquarters
-
Bellevue, Washington, USA
