The Xbox One controller cost $100,000,000

Agent Icebeezy said:
That thing that you are always touching though. 360 controller is my controller for the 360 (obviously) and PC. I'm graduating to the XB1 controller for both.
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I understand that. But you mentioned its beauty, so I figured you meant looks, not how it feels in your hands.

I'm going to wait till I've held both controllers before deciding which is the best of the gen, especially after hearing all the glowing praise the DualShock 4 has received.
 
blackflag said:
100m? Should have saved their money. 360 pad was perfect other than the D pad..would anyone have complained if it was the same other than that?
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360 pad wasn't perfect. It had some pretty bad build quality issues with the analog sticks and bumpers. The damn thing doesn't last more than a 2-3 years. And I take care of my shit, so I wasn't mishandling them or anything. Meanwhile I have PS2 and Gamecube controllers that are 10+ years old and still work perfectly. And they have seen way more abuse than any of my 360 controllers.

If the One controller fixes those issues, then it will be just about the best controller (well, besides the Wavebird) as long as they didn't make anything else worse.

statham said:
They will make it back from PC gamers alone.
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This isn't inaccurate. The best part about the Xbone will be using that controller for my PC, assuming they actually release the drivers for it.
 
Glad they focused on improving the controller. 360 pad needs more tweaks than just the dpad. And I'm glad they were smart enough to go with optional AA batteries. Eneloops >*

And I'm sure the cost is for everything involved with designing/making the controller and the man hours.
 
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Are you sure it's 100 MILLION?
 
BleachAndPepsi said:
It cost $100 million to say "fix the d-pad, make the triggers rumble, and ugly the face button up a bit"?

God, it must be nice to have billions to burn.
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And it's posts like this which proves pachter right that people on this forum have no grasp of economics or business.

It is articulated so clearly in the press release where it states they had to sort out new manufacturing facilities, thousands of man hours for testing and all the prototypes.

This budget would have been clearly laid out and a calculated risk which will hopefully make up all its costs and then some.
 
MercuryLS said:
The Xbox One hate here really is excessive. It's just a console people.
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People like making fun of MS for some reason, even though they're essentially just a slightly less competent and less evil version of Apple. Now that the One isn't terrible, you have to fall back on ridiculing the company that makes it (apparently).

Oh, and the battery thing is getting old. Quite a few of us would much rather pop in a fresh set of Enloops than tether the damn thing.
 
Phat Michael said:
And it's posts like this which proves pachter right that people on this forum have no grasp of economics or business.

It is articulated so clearly in the press release where it states they had to sort out new manufacturing facilities, thousands of man hours for testing and all the prototypes.

This budget would have been clearly laid out and a calculated risk which will hopefully make up all its costs and then some.
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It never ceases to amaze me how often people get all achy over an obvious joke.

Take a deep breath and relax. Microsoft will survive my failed attempt at humor.
 
It seems to me that they could have maybe spent that money on something better than a controller redesign that made it arguably worse judging by people who have tried it.

I mean, all they had to do was fix the dpad, replace rf with wd, and throw in a second set of tumblers.
 
It's clear no one here has worked at a big company, those sort of expenditures (when they include salaries, R&D equipment, etc) are on the high side, but not uncommon at all.
 
Considering how solid the 360 controller already is, I kinda wish they spent some of that $100m figuring out a strategy that wouldn't do irreversible harm on parts of their consumer base that's going to take years to repair.
 
Money well spent. Improving on what has been "almost" the perfect controller ever isn't easy.

Designing a controller that fits an incredible amount of different hand sizes comfortably and functions with precision isn't all that easy... or so many companies wouldn't have screwed it up so bad in the past.

The bad/highly flawed controllers released compared to great ones ratio must be like 10 to 1 at least.

Controller looks awesome.. at least they aren't Sony who refuses to move the left analog to it's proper place.


..and using batteries is GREAT... let me change them when they need to be changed... it's not like buying some Eneloops and a charger is all that expensive.. and it means I don't have to switch to a USB when my controller dies.. I just swap batteries and keep on gaming.

Non-Swappable batteries in a controller is stupid design.
 
I would have loved to be the consultant on this gravy train.

Buy a 40 GameCube controller.
Spend 25 adding a fourth shoulder button.

Bill one hundred million
 
Do we know how high the R&D costs were for other controllers, as a point of reference ? I suppose there are many man.hours invested into the wiimote, for example. The different DS models after the first one probably didn't cost much, though. ;)
 
CambriaRising said:
It seems to me that they could have maybe spent that money on something better than a controller redesign that made it arguably worse judging by people who have tried it.

I mean, all they had to do was fix the dpad.
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I haven't heard anyone say it's worse. It's just not getting as much buzz as the PS4 controller because it's not as big an improvement over its predecessor.

The rumble triggers sound like they have a lot of potential for subtly enhancing the feel of certain actions.

Ultimately I agree with you, though, that they could have just fixed the d-pad, saved $100,000,000 and just let whiners complain (inconsequentially) about how it's not different enough from the 360 pad.
 
haZethew0rld said:
>Spends 100m developing controller
>Still uses AA's

wat.
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Yeah, I love the 360 controller and it's one of the main reasons I am sticking with Xbox for the next generation but not including a removable/rechargeable battery is ridiculous. I was ok with it last gen, but after (2) different play and charge batteries died on me in less than 6 months, it's a little hard to hear that this is the plan again.

Guess I need to invest in these eneloops everyone is talking about.
 
hey_it's_that_dog said:
I haven't heard anyone say it's worse. It's just not getting as much buzz as the PS4 controller because it's not as big an improvement over its predecessor.

The rumble triggers sound like they have a lot of potential for subtly enhancing the feel of certain actions.

Ultimately I agree with you, though, that they could have just fixed the d-pad, saved $100,000,000 and just let whiners complain (inconsequentially) about how it's not different enough from the 360 pad.
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"Worse" probably isn't the right term, I've just heard that the triggers aren't as snappy, more squishy.
 
Ridiculous waste of money. Sony probably spent a tiny fraction of that amount and, for all the hands-on impressions, made just as many improvements to the DS4.
 
RibbedHero said:
It's clear no one here has worked at a big company, those sort of expenditures (when they include salaries, R&D equipment, etc) are on the high side, but not uncommon at all.
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Yeah, the company I work for paid an external firm €120k to design what is essentially a flash app.

They also paid a similar amount to have a world famous design firm design the housing for a piece of equipment we produce.

And those are 2 very simple things.
 
Wow, they spend 100 million and come up with something that looks incredibly similar to the previous controller. With that amount of money, I would have expected them to come up with a vastly different design, something more customizable along the lines of the Madcatz MLG controller.
 
Some PR dude must have massaged the numbers to get this "design" cost.

After all, the design cost also includes "construction facilities" which somehow doesn't sound to me like "design".
 
Alx said:
Do we know how high the R&D costs were for other controllers, as a point of reference ? I suppose there are many man.hours invested into the wiimote, for example. The different DS models after the first one probably didn't cost much, though. ;)
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I think the best comparison would be the cost of R&D on the new dualshock no?

From pictures change there seems a lot more radical so not sure what the 1000 changes from the X360 controller the X1 controller has

Triggers, D-Pad, battery placement, wireless technology, and audio interface?

I wonder what cost the most
 
RibbedHero said:
It's clear no one here has worked at a big company, those sort of expenditures (when they include salaries, R&D equipment, etc) are on the high side, but not uncommon at all.
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Microsoft R&D is always ridiculously high.

I don't give credit to Apple much, but they are so efficient with their R&D budget.
 
NervousXtian said:
Money well spent. Improving on what has been "almost" the perfect controller ever isn't easy.

Designing a controller that fits an incredible amount of different hand sizes comfortably and functions with precision isn't all that easy... or so many companies wouldn't have screwed it up so bad in the past.

The bad/highly flawed controllers released compared to great ones ratio must be like 10 to 1 at least.

Controller looks awesome.. at least they aren't Sony who refuses to move the left analog to it's proper place.
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Subjective. And having used both controllers at comiccon, I felt like the triggers are actually a step backward. The dpad felt ok, didn't use it enough to properly get a feel for it.
 
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