Valve's new Steam Controller finally has a release date, according to Eurogamer. The revived PC gamepad will be available to add to cart through Steam on May 4, with Valve pricing it at $99 in the US, £85 in the UK, €99 in Europe, $149 in Canada, $149 in Australia and 419 złoty in Poland.
That turns the earlier May 4 Steam Controller leak into a confirmed launch plan. It also means the controller is moving ahead before Valve's other new hardware, the Steam Machine mini PC and Steam Frame standalone VR headset, both of which were pushed back after memory and storage prices surged.
Valve announced the Steam Controller revival last November as part of a three-device hardware push built around the momentum of Steam Deck. All three devices were initially targeting the start of 2026, but Valve later said it was aiming to launch the wider lineup before the middle of the year because of global RAM and storage shortages tied to heavy AI data center demand.
The controller avoided that bottleneck because it does not use RAM or storage. Valve designer Lawrence Yang said the company is shipping it now because the device is ready, not because the rest of the hardware lineup slipped.
"We didn't artificially hold it back for whatever reason. This is just how long it's taken to get everything ready from a hardware, firmware, software standpoint, as well as building up enough launch quantity and getting it to all of the warehouses around the world so that we can have a good launch quantity on ship day."
The new pad is meant to close a gap Valve saw after Steam Deck became a real couch-play device for many PC players. Valve engineer Jeremy Slocum said the team noticed that players who docked the handheld could not easily carry over the same input setups to a regular controller.
Slocum also said Valve remains proud of the original 2015 Steam Controller, but acknowledged that it asked too much of some players by leaving out inputs many games expected. The new version keeps the advanced Steam input ideas while adding a second thumbstick and a more familiar Steam Deck-style layout, which should make it easier to pick up before players start experimenting with touchpads, gyro controls or custom configurations.
Regional price differences are being attributed to distribution costs, import duties, tariffs and market conditions. For now, the controller is the first confirmed launch from Valve's renewed hardware lineup, while players waiting on the Steam Machine and Steam Frame are still waiting for their own firm dates.