Valve is cancelling orders for its heavily discounted Steam Controllers after it inadvertently sold too many during this year’s Steam Autumn Sale.
Last week, as the sale got underway, eagle-eyed bargain hunters spotted that Valve had slashed the cost of its wonderfully idiosyncratic Steam Controller by a whopping 90%, lowering its usual £39.99 price right down to a paltry £4 (although delivery remained a not-insubstantial £7.40).
A notice on the controller’s Steam page warned that only a “limited quantity” remained – which, The Verge learned, was the result of Valve’s decision to cease production of the device. Controllers initially appeared to sell out rapidly, but Steam intermittently enabled new purchases, giving the impression that Valve might be regulating stock throughout its sale.
Over the weekend, however, some seemingly successful purchasers (including myself) awoke to discover a refund notification email sitting in their inboxes. Following some confusion online as to why refunds were being triggered, given the lack of clarification in the initial notice, Valve dispatched a follow-up email explaining more.