The Xbox One controller cost $100,000,000

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Honestly if this means they have fixed the Dpad, the drifting problems with the sticks, and more sturdy bumpers on top of the new rumble stuff, I don't care how much they spent :p
 
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I approve of this vast expenditure of money, because if Sony isn't going to make PC drivers for the DS4, then I'm going over to the XBone controller for my PC shenanigans, and whether on PC or XBone, none of those fancy graphics matter one bit if the input is ass. Controller design should get a king's share of the budget in my fact.

There I said something positive in MS's direction. That wasn't so hard.
 
The new controller feels great. Played with the rumble in those triggers on some tech demos at E3. That is my favorite feature by far.

Shame about the batteries though. Additional cost to an already over-priced console if you want to go for like a play and charge kit.
 
The new controller feels great. Played with the rumble in those triggers on some tech demos at E3. That is my favorite feature by far.

Shame about the batteries though. Additional cost to an already over-priced console if you want to go for like a play and charge kit.

Do people seriously not know about eneloop batteries? I'm tired of this, only ignorant people would buy a play and charge kit when you can probably get a set of 8 batteries and an eneloop charger for a comparable price and use it on many controllers/devices.
 
I'm just saying MS should use this money to invest in for the long term

making new studious - good investment
making cloud servers - good investment
wasting that much money on a controller - not so good investment

Making a controller that will last the entire generation is a poor long term investment?

Gotcha.

Depends on how you hold your DS3. for me, my gip puts my thumbs exactly where the sticks are, with my forefingers on the triggers, where most games seem to focus these days.

In 15+ years of using a playstation controller, i've never experienced this discomfort people seem to be having. Makes me really wonder how they grip the thing.

As for the topic? $100m is a lot, but that's probably the start to finish costs, including preparing for production in terms of tooling. That's about what I expect. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony's costs were in the tens of millions as well all things considered.

I'm curious how you can say your thumb naturally just sits on the analog with a PS3. At a resting position with the controller my finger lays on the D-Pad. On a 360 it rests on the stick. It's not natural to extend your thumb down to the analog.

I know different strokes and all, but ergonomically speaking the 360 just feels better in hand.

100M and still asymmetrical sticks. Da fug.

Yeah, it's stupid for MS to stick to the left analog being in the natural position where your thumb rests.
 
There are people that make their purchase habits based on their controller preferences. It could lead to better software sales on their platform or more accessory sales if they choose to get another on their Xbone or PC (whenever that happens). Maybe the cost was a bit much but I don't know how this compares to the rest of the industry.


It has already been said that you can plug in a micro USB cable for it to be a wired controller. The bigger issue is PC drivers.

I think it would be stupid for Microsoft to not support windows with the Xbox One pad. They're already planning on releasing a version of Kinect 2.0 for PC.
 
Do people seriously not know about eneloop batteries? I'm tired of this, only ignorant people would buy a play and charge kit when you can probably get a set of 8 batteries and an eneloop charger for a comparable price and use it on many controllers/devices.

The eneloop set up is still more inconvenient though, as you have to take batteries out, stick them in a wall charger, then stick new batteries in instead of just plugging in a cable.
 
MS apparently has zero oversight when it comes to expenditures.

And it still needs batteries, which is hilarious and sad at the same time.
 
Also, a set of 4 Eneloops plus the charger will cost you roughly $20. The Play and charge kit for the XO is $15. The Eneloop official charger also takes 7 hours to charge a set.
 
Do people seriously not know about eneloop batteries? I'm tired of this, only ignorant people would buy a play and charge kit when you can probably get a set of 8 batteries and an eneloop charger for a comparable price and use it on many controllers/devices.

There are a lot of ignorant people playing video games.

I actually prefer not having to switch in and out batteries. It's an additional step. I'm currently using that docking station for my 360 controllers. Haven't had to change the batteries ever. I will most likely go with the same cleaner and more efficient solution again when I buy this controller. I already have a lot of shit here too, so anything I can do to reduce clutter is welcome.

I don't mind paying extra for convenience. The way I see it, if this is something that I will be using for the next 10+ years I'd like a more permanent and effortless solution.
 
So from this I will extrapolate that the xb1 console cost $180,000,000,000 to design and kinect cost $86,000,000,000.


damn...100,000,000
 
Why are so many people assuming with no context or any logical basis besides pure speculation that this is wasteful? Even if it was, which it's not, it would be an absolutely good thing yet there's still criticism.

I know there are so many posters here that all sides of a debate including the ignorant ones are represented but it's clear that there are users here who take their bias way too far. Not a big percentage since I'm not generalizing but some criticizing this should take a second to think if they would assume it was wasteful if Sony provided a similar figure.
 
I think it would be stupid for Microsoft to not support windows with the Xbox One pad. They're already planning on releasing a version of Kinect 2.0 for PC.
Yeah but I'm shocked that it won't be ready at launch instead they gave some vague "2014" date.

The eneloop set up is still more inconvenient though, as you have to take batteries out, stick them in a wall charger, then stick new batteries in instead of just plugging in a cable.
Plugging a cable I guess seems more convenient but I charge batteries as they go out. The difference is minor although I like keeping a wireless controller wireless.

Also, a set of 4 Eneloops plus the charger will cost you roughly $20. The Play and charge kit for the XO is $15. The Eneloop official charger also takes 7 hours to charge a set.
This one says 110 minutes for 2x, 220 minutes for 4x. That's close to how long my old Panasonic BQ-390 takes. Some others on their site seems to vary but they all seem different on purpose. And that set of 4 should should last years if not more than a decade with little quality loss.

Also, never knew they offered an official charger through usb. Interesting.
 
If this is inefficient I don't want to you know what you think of my employer's (large bank) software development expenditures (read: billions). $100m is on the high side, but I didn't bat an eyelid seeing it.
Yes, lots of companies spend very inefficiently, that doesn't suddenly make it a badge of honor to do so.

Claude Kenni said:
Why are so many people assuming with no context or any logical basis besides pure speculation that this is wasteful? Even if it was, which it's not, it would be an absolutely good thing yet there's still criticism.
Since you're berating others for their assumptions, I can only logically conclude that you can provide context and logical basis for the bolded? Kinda weird that you didn't considering that your criticizing others for the same...
 
you guys sometime are too harsh with MS... 100 million dollars for a developer / research team for a two year project is perfectly reasonable.
 
I don't know how this stacks up with past controller projects, but it seems ridiculously high, it better not have any build quality problems like the last one for that amount of paper.
 
you guys sometime are too harsh with MS... 100 million dollars for a developer / research team for a two year project is perfectly reasonable.

I guess it depends on how much they spent on hardware... When it comes to salaries, to spend $50 million a year you need a pretty big team. Let's say each employee costs them $250k (including salary, healthcare, taxes, office space etc.), that means a 200-man team.

Seems like a lot for a controller, then again I don't know much about hardware development.
 
$100 millions sounds legit, since the Gears of War guys said it took them hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars just to make maps.
 
Welcome to the Research and Development budgets for big important projects of billion dollar corporations.

It's $100 million of R+D to a product that likely generated over $5 billion in direct revenue last generation- and I'm being conservative as it's not counting indirect revenue

I don't see why people think this is too much

Xbox 360 is one of the best controllers of all time and became the first PC standard pad since the very shitty gravis game pad reared its head - they accomplished something the sidewinder team never could

There's a lot of money riding on the continued success of these devices
 
This sounds pretty excessive. I don't know, but I think I would've fired someone if it took them $100 million to make a controller. But it's well appreciated that they're going those lengths to make a great controller. I can't wait to get my hands on one to see how it feels, and if the D-pad improvements and impulse triggers are meaningful in any way.
 
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