The Xbox One controller cost $100,000,000

100 Million to make the best controller even better. Chump change to the likes of Microsoft but still improvements across the board. I can't wait to get my hands on the Xbox One controller!
 
I wonder if that includes all the 3D printing and other machines they used to build on the fly prototypes or if those machines were part of the Surface design process.
 
Iced_Eagle said:
I don't know about you, but I'm going to be using this controller for almost a decade. I'm glad they invested a lot into it.
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EvB said:
Not really, that represents $1 for every Xbox One controller that is sold over the next 10 years
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It's great for us, as consumers. But people were crazy about the 360 controller anyway, "best controller ever", and stuff.

That's a lot of money, but they're a business, they know what they're doing.

I'd have taken an improved d-pad and that was it.
 
I think it looks great, but MSoft is making its own jokes now.

$100,000,000 controller
5 billion transistors
600% AI capability
 
They really do need someone better working for them...

That is the craziest waste of a huge amount of money I have ever heard.
 
nib95 said:
I don't believe that, unless they have a very inefficient R&D team. All that spend and it's that similar to the 360 pad, has wider triggers (not a good thing) and still uses AA batteries?
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In the article

Microsoft has spent more than $100 million on designing the Xbox One controller. It sounds like an extraordinary sum, but that includes the design of hundreds of pad prototypes, thousands of hours of user research studies, and creating new tooling and construction facilities. The project dragged on for two-and-a-half years.
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Well that's a lot of money for something that in the end doesn't seem to be that different from the predecessor.
 
Einbroch said:
...Really?

I mean, they basically just took the 360 pad, which is already IMO the best controller out there, and tweaked it. I know they said there's over 10000 improvements, or whatever, but holy cow that's a lot to not really change the functionality of it.
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Oh if only things were this simple. It costs a ton to turn things in to a final product, especially something like this that needs wireless technology and approvals, the force feedback triggers etc etc.

Also the wireless tech has specifically been designed to be extremely low latency compared to anything else out there. Which would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that most people won't have Game Mode enabled on their TVs anyway.
 
Seeing how this is the thing you will be holding in your hand through hundreds of hours of playtime, it seems like a wise investment. Sony should have done the same thing for DS3 or maybe ignored the boomerang haters. I'm glad both controllers are sounding legit this gen.
 
MS marketing team in full overload mode. Next up: Full details on the design of the little rubber feet on the bottom of the box.
 
Arklite said:
$100,000,000 controller
5 billion transistors
600% AI capability
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We can rebuild him

BIGGER
FASTER
STRONGER

Critical%2BAssignment%2BLegs%2B1.jpg
 
It seems like the under the hood changes are significant. Less button lag, the rumble is completely changed, reduced power use, sane use of wired mode. They better have fixed the D pad though damn.

Also, S controller is still bettar.
 
After 100 million dollars and countless hours of research done by the world's finest, we have concluded that the best controller ever made is essentially the one you used for your last console.

Have a good day, Microsoft.
 
Nice video. MS is clearly making an effort to ditch the polished PR for a more casual, off the cuff kind of dialogue.

A good, if calculated move.
 
Microsoft has spent more than $100 million on designing the Xbox One controller. It sounds like an extraordinary sum, but that includes the design of hundreds of pad prototypes, thousands of hours of user research studies, and creating new tooling and construction facilities. The project dragged on for two-and-a-half years.
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Can't help but think about this excellent article when I read news like this one.

This bit, in particular:
The achingly slow processes at times bordered on the comical. Marc Turkel, a product manager, told me about an initiative he oversaw around 2010 that involved multiple groups. At the same time the new project began, workers were breaking ground for construction of a 12-story building that would occupy a square block; Turkel’s office window looked out on the construction site.

Turkel began negotiating with the different managers, then their supervisors, and then their supervisors as he tried to get the project finished. “It was amazing the amount of buyoff that was required,” he said. “It was something, without all that time we wasted, that should have taken six weeks at most.”

Finally, one day, Turkel was running another interminable meeting when he looked out the window. The building was finished. The project was not.

“I pointed to the building and said, ‘When we started this, that building didn’t exist,’ ” Turkel told me. “It was unbelievable.”
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Of course it's not necessarily related to this specific case as the time and money spent might very well be reasonable for designing a new controller, but I wonder if it is really so.
 
EvB said:
In the article
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No I read it. But to me it comes off as PR fluff. I'm sure there's a lot of truth in it, but probably exaggerated grossly. At least based on the evidence of the final product and multiple impressions, some of which say the 360 pad is actually more comfortable to use, namely because of the slimmer triggers.
 
Azih said:
It seems like the under the hood changes are significant. Less button lag, the rumble is completely changed, reduced power use, sane use of wired mode. They better have fixed the D pad though damn.

Also, S controller is still bettar.
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That article mentioned that the patent that covered Nintendo's D-Pad has expired since the 360 pad was made.

civilstrife said:
Nice video. MS is clearly making an effort to ditch the polished PR for a more casual, off the cuff kind of dialogue.

A good, if calculated move.
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Wasn't Major Nelson meant to be some kind of dislikeable father figure that the entire internet hated?
 
If they're going to make 50+ million of these things over the next 8 years, it's not really that nuts to spend 100 million improving the design.
 
How do you spend money like that. On research and design...? Do you pay special contractors, employees, was it going through concepts...how do you reach 100m for something like that???
 
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