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.
"The investments in redesigning a controller go into the hundreds of millions of dollars in tooling and R&D costs. Bearing in mind we started with something that people considered best-in-class, the pressure to do it right again was tremendous.
CVG
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What's widely considered the stand-out improvement, as detailed here, is the Impulse triggers. Alam and his team have shrunk rumble motors down to about one eighth of their previous size and scattered several of them across the pad, allowing for more subtle force feedback in localised parts of the controller.
In one FPS-style demo CVG played, firing a virtual pistol with the controller's right trigger resulted in simulated recoil occurring on just that part of the controller. In another demo, which had the same virtual hand magically spawn a fire ball, you could 'feel' the explosive projectile explode from the centre of the controller and out towards your fingers.
CVG
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More here.
It does look like a pretty perfect specimen, though I'm still quite baffled as to why they're using AAs instead of some fancy lithium solution. That would have rounded off any rough edges the controller has/had.
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I'll also say that MS have stated that the controller will be able to be used on PC "sometime in 2014".
A Microsoft spokesperson tells GamesBeat that while the Xbox One controller looks like the current Xbox 360 controller in many ways, the two dont share the same technology.
New wireless protocol, combined with the ability to work in wired mode, and the addition of features like Impulse triggers, means that new software has to be written and optimized for the PC, the Microsoft spokesperson says. There is also some work that we need to do to make sure that existing PC games that support the Xbox 360 controller will work with the Xbox One controller.
While it seems trivial, its actually quite a bit of dedicated work for all that to be seamless for the user.
The Xbox One controller reportedly has over 40 design improvements, including redesigned thumb sticks, remodeled triggers and bumpers, and the aforementioned impulse triggers that provide haptic feedback. It will work wirelessly, through standard AA batteries or rechargeables, or wired through a standard micro USB cable.
Microsoft says it expects PC compatibility will be functional sometime in 2014.
Gamesbeat
Further linkage re: PCÂ compatibility here.
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