I was very impressed with Xbox’s E3 showing this year. Their display across the street from the convention center seemed a little pretentious at first; but after setting foot in the air-conditioned and (more importantly) NOT insanely overcrowded halls, I quickly changed my tune.
I was surprised by how many titles from the conference were playable, and how beautiful they all looked on the top-of-the-line hardware and TVs. While not front and center, my personal star of Microsoft’s show was the Xbox adaptive controller.
It didn’t have the sexy immersion rigs that Forza had, or the line of people that Battlefield V had. But this controller’s importance goes far beyond any single game showed in the entire convention.
Microsoft spending so many resources on developing a niche peripheral that’s meant for so many different types of mobility (with little potential for a return on their investment) sends a powerful message: Gamers first.
This is in stark contrast to Sony’s cross-play / cross-save debacle, which sends a very different message: Fuck you gamers, you’re gonna buy our shit and we’ll punish you for trying anything else. But as usual, I digress.
Microsoft has done everything possible to make the adaptive controller as accessible, customizable and easy to use as possible. A large, solid base is the key to everything this device is, and will become.
It has a D-pad, two large customizable buttons, all your start and menu buttons, 2 USB inputs, and an individual 3.5 input jack for every button and joystick on the standard controller.
What that means is not only do you have nearly limitless possibilities for future add-ons, but you can also use hardware you might already have around the house, like the Rock Band kick drum pedal.
Alongside the base, Microsoft showed a huge variety of inputs that could be used instead of traditional buttons and thumbsticks. They had touchpads, squishy beanbags, a mini-stapler looking thing, bendy tabs, an elongated douche-nozzley stick and what I found most impressive, a proximity sensor you just have to wave over.
It was also nice to hear that (unlike the Kinect) there are no plans to bundle anything with the base controller. This means every player gets to build the exact setup that fits them best, and buy only the pieces they need directly from manufacturers.
Since they’re really just working with on/off switches and potentiometers (think dimmer switch), the console or PC sees the input the exact same way that it does from any other controller.
Developers won’t have to add or modify anything in their games for any custom setup to work exactly the same. Fucking beautiful.
Xbox’s adaptive controller is open for pre-order now at $99.99, and is slated for a September release. I can’t wait to see what the modding community does with this.
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