Valve is putting a stop to potential Steam Machine scalpers

The Steam Machine is currently available for wishlist, and this time, Valve is learning from its mistakes with the Steam Controller.

The Steam Controller launched earlier this month for $149 and immediately, scalpers had to ruin legitimate buyers’ chances to buy the controller, reselling the controller online for double the price.

Often, scalpers use bots to buy consoles and other products en masse instantly, flooding vendor sites with traffic and buying everything within moments. However, Valve plans to make it harder to order the console using bots.

When Steam Machine pre-orders finally open, buyers will need to respond to an email within 72 hours. With a limit of one console per user, it’s harder to buy multiple consoles instantly. Since every pre-order is required to reply to an email, it’s easier to monitor which accounts are bots, and it is harder to make bots that execute this function in the first place.

While no official release date has been posted or price made available for the Steam Machine due to the global chip shortages, the preventative measures put in place should ensure legitimate buyers can actually buy the console they have been waiting for.

Update May 14, 2026, at 1:26p.m. ET: A previous version of this article mistakenly said the Steam Machine was available for pre-order, when it is actually available to wishlist. We regret the error.