Home » E3 2013 – Xbox One Controller Disappoints

E3 2013 – Xbox One Controller Disappoints

For many people, myself included, the Xbox 360 pad is the best and most comfortable of this current generation of consoles. While it could be argued that, on sales numbers alone, the Wiimote was possibly the most popular of recent years, there is no doubt that most gamers would not consider this to be the case – with the Xbox 360 pad being most people’s first choice of a controller and the PS3’s falls into second place with its less ergonomic layout of analog sticks and inferior triggers and bumper buttons being the most common criticisms.

There have been a number of issues that gamers have taken with the Xbox One details — factors such as DRM, used games and an over emphasis on TV content. It was widely expected that the Xbox One controller with its “Forty improvements” would be a serious selling point for the One console to rule them all. Unfortunately, at least from early impressions, this does not seem to be the case. Instead of refining the recipe they may have “New Coke-d” themselves.

I can report that the new D-pad is an improvement – although the 360’s D-pad could possibly have only been made worse if manufactured with sloppy cheese – but was part of the reason I was happy to play Killer Instinct with a controller rather than the fight sticks which were available on three out of four of the demo stations. Although my time with the game was brief, it did seem as though the D-pad was more responsive and better at registering diagonals than that of the 360.

The Xbox One pad does look very sleek and clean in appearance, but this may be hampering it’s performance as a controller. My two main concerns are the redesigned anolog sticks and the redesigned triggers.

Analog sticks – Both sticks have been redesigned to be much more responsive. An Xbox One developer I spoke to said that they only recently received the hardware and so had not had time to adjust their E3 build to take advantage of the increased sensitivity of the Xbox One analogs and had based the build on the Xbox 360 controller. The new sticks have more of an indent in the top of them, which did feel like an actual improvement and although it felt a little weird at first I think I will come to like the grip that surrounds the edge to further prevent your thumbs from slipping. The sticks also seemed to have a greater range of movement which could help account for the increased sensitivity.

However, I am deeply concerned that the shrinking of these sticks to a slightly smaller size (something I did not realise was the case until getting hands-on) is to the controller’s detriment. I do have reasonably large thumbs and so thought this may be an issue that affected me more than most, but having spoken to a number of other people at the show it seems that I am not alone and that this seemed to be a concern echoed by others (with much smaller thumbs than mine).

XBOne Sticks

Triggers – I will qualify this upfront by saying that I did not get a chance to play Forza 5, and this was the only title on the E3 show floor that was showcasing the newly added force feedback resistance feature to the triggers that may have influenced their design. My concern comes from the shape and feel of the new design and I wonder just how much this was influenced by the force feedback or in an attempt to make it look more aesthetically pleasing by making it look like a more integral part of the pad. Whatever the reasoning, the end result is that the triggers no longer feel like a trigger; the force feedback may provide a better reason for the change, but as it stands — and at the very least in all cases where force feedback isn’t employed — this feels like a desire to be different has resulted in a backwards step in pad design.

I will note that both these factors giving me concerns are perhaps something that we will adapt to over time. After all, we have had seven and a half years to get used to previous controllers and they have become very familiar. As such, even a minor change will feel very alien and could result in a knee-jerk reaction of rejection. As much as I do have concerns they are not (yet) massive issues that amount to me having no interest in the system. However, with all the other concerns about the system in general, Microsoft really could have done with keeping one step ahead of Sony in terms of pad design. I have some minor concerns about the PS4 pad, but most of those relate to the touchpad, whilst changes to the PS4 pad’s triggers do seem to be for the better. With the PS4 making strides forward I do not think Microsoft can afford for their analogs and triggers to be shooting themselves in the foot.

4 Comments

  1. so all in all it ain’t all that back it what your saying ? Because your message come’s across a bit mixed ?
    anyway keep up the pod cast there wicked.

    Reply
  2. I think what Tim is saying is that these controllers are good; similar to the old ones which we know are good and work but his query is that the upgrade isn’t that great or actually might be detrimental. They are still good controllers but have some possible issues. Tim’s main gripe is that they are being quite risky with the design considering PS4 is snapping at the heels here and that they can’t afford to be.

    Reply
  3. Tim please give me a shout out. thanks for clearing that up. Think I’ll go for ps4 then or maybe just stick with PC

    Reply
  4. I get that they want to be cutting edge and all, but why mess with perfection?

    I guess that I may change my tone when/if I try the new one.

    Reply

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