Every Xbox Controller

The Xbox Controller is amongst one of my favorite designs for its simplicity and well-rounded use, so I want to take a look back at its roots going all the way back to the original Duke Xbox controller and look at how the design has evolved over time.

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[IAmAriqueAlt]

I always considered the original Xbox to be the “Dreamcast 2”, so I consider the Duke controller to be an evolution of the Sega Dreamcast controller. A (kind of) better D-pad, two expansion slots, an almost identical button layout… Yeah, everything was there that could be considered a follow-up to the Dreamcast controller.

[vastorfenix]

Nothing more satisfying than flicking those old batteries straight outta that 360 battery pack

[EdwardPHandsBasedManchild]

The 360 controller was THE controller for me back then. Aside from the d-pad, the fact that the sticks were offset really made it more comfortable for me. So much so that it feels weird going back to the DualShock.

[carpetfresh]

I absolutely love my 20th anniversary controller the overall plastic feels great and the green grip adds that extra comfort

[bjurne]

Fun fact: The original Duke and S controllers also used USB as their connector, but the plastic around the connector is shaped in such a way that it only fits the Xbox ports and no other. You softmod an Xbox by plugging in a USB drive into the controller ports.

[miltongonzalez]

The nostalgia hit me hard and I had to buy the new Duke controller they put out.

[Coolman]

Unless I missed it surprised you didn't mention Play&Charge for both the wireless 360 controller and for the modern Xbox controllers. Speaking of the controllers for the One and Series, big correction. They aren't wireless only. The USB port isn't just for power. They can function as wired controllers.

[matthewjones]

you skipped the first redesign of the xbox one controller. It originally launched with crappy bumpers and no headphone jack. they fixed those two things on revision 2. revision 3 was where the added bluetooth and got rid of the segmented look

[Neoxon]

They really need to add more features to the Xbox controller, at least a gyroscope & haptics.

[teneesh]

Honestly, I love the button layout of the duke. (I will be using the + as buttons you can press at the same time) Its layout makes it comfortable to press A + B, A + X, Y+B or X+Y together. Compared to the diamond layout were it's only comfortable to press A+X or Y+B.

It's a shame they got rid of this and just went with the more generic less versatile diamond layout. Even made the black and white buttons made more sense for fighting games. Being in a layout more akin to a fight stick just made more sense to me. Though I don't really use the duke cause of everything else about the controller. But the button layout is the one great thing about it

[bland]

I found an old D input PC controller that's very similar to a PlayStation controller with the sticks of the bottom and everything but it's so big that I have to call it the Duke of PlayStation controllers.

It also has six buttons on the front (the extra 2 are LB and RB) and only two shoulder buttons (Not triggers so no analog). The d-pad is kinda like the dukes wavy design as well. It also has a square analog stick housing. They are a bit odd but once you get use to them then they works fine most of the time.

[triadwarfare]

We should push Xbox to adopt hall effect sensors. This should completely eliminate stick drift.

[moemajali]

While I do love the design and shape - every single Xbox series controller I’ve gotten thus far (4 in total) have had face button issues. Mainly, the A & Y buttons do not always register a click.

[IcyXzavien]

I would love it if Microsoft added a gyroscope to their controllers. Gyro aiming is being held back a bit since they're the only one without it. Nintendo, Sony, Valve (with their steam controller and deck), and phones all have it.

[titaniumwof]

If MS wants to add additional features to new Xbox Controller, they should add 2 paddles and 2 more buttons between bumpers and triggers like how Razer Sabretooth did, plus gyro sensor, and expose those additional buttons as LP RP for paddles and LN RN for buttons between bumpers and triggers or whatever name that fit better to new games to use instead of programmable/remappable buttons.

[Iron]

Don't forget it was the first controller who introduced a proper pair of triggers. To this day many tried to replicate it but for me the Xbox controller is the one to go when it comes to shooters i.e

[xaytana]

Next evolution of the Xbox controller, and Xinput in general, needs to be the addition of motion controls. Sony and Nintendo have both had it for three generations now, mobile has it, VR/AR has it, and PC has had mixed support of it as well for quite awhile. There's absolutely no reason for Xbox to not have it. What we'll be more likely to see is some kind of haptic, maybe force feedback triggers as those could become a variable trigger stops, plus third parties are catching onto force feedback triggers while not being on Sony's platform, but these will probably be Elite Series 3 additions. Personally I also want a touchpad as well, both of which Sony and Nintendo have had for ages, PS Vita and DS onwards, again something Microsoft just needs to add to the Xinput ecosystem even if it goes underused. It wouldn't even be that difficult to retroactively add motion and touchpad support, the accessory port has overhead for it and it's a secondary I2C device (fun fact, all the buttons on the top board are linked through an I2C chip), literally all that needs to be done to the controller is a firmware update to whitelist new devices that aren't official chatpads and the older official headset adapters; Microsoft could update the ecosystem to have both motion and gyro input tomorrow and everything would be 100% compatible outside of game support, but games based on a common engine, Unreal or Unity for example, could have support added almost immediately. We could also see Microsoft introduce hall effect sticks, though probably as another ES3 feature, considering Sony has swappable sticks in their upcoming Pro controller, probably better to one-up the competition than to border on patent infringement considering the two better methods of stick swapping (sliding in from the one available side and drop-in modules) are already taken, plus GuliKit is a supplier, plus there's alternative implementation methods than what GuliKit is doing; GK has the best design for an immediate replacement to the current joystick design, but this isn't the best design, but better designs need to redesign the entire mechanism for them to work.

Other than this, there's a few ideas. Standardizing back buttons/paddles as non-pro features, as many third parties are doing. Inner shoulder buttons, as some third parties are doing, but preferably as a lateral bumper rather than needing a downwards (in relation to the button's face) actuation. I personally want to see the return of the S style six button layout, the Saturn/Genesis/N64/fight pad layout works well and all but it also requires additional thumb movement, a more optimal layout would be your thumb rocking on a middle button in a tip-pad-joint layout between two columns of buttons. Another thing that I personally wanna see is dedicated diagonals on the dpad, an actual switch under the 45° positions, not only would this make diagonals more accurate but this would also give more diagonals at the 22.5° increments; to add to this, I also want to see a pair of the thumb joint buttons southwest of the dpad, similar to the start and select were on the S controller but lower, though they could also be placed southwest of the left sick as well like they actually are on the S controller, they may not see much use but additional input is always welcomed. There's even more fringe ideas, like a back joystick/circlepad, a back/shoulder scroll wheel, Flydigi put a circlepad-like slider under the XBY cluster (though this was meant for mobile gaming's touch and drag inputs, but there's been some interesting bindings for this on PC), one thing I haven't seen implanted yet is replacing back buttons with a touch strip so that you can customize amount of inputs, or doing this with proximity plus a FSR like what the Valve Index does for finger tracking and grip pressure. Even returning to older concepts like the PS2/3 idea of having all the buttons be analog-capable instead of just a switch would be cool to see again. There's a lot of ideas that're unexplored and underexplored.

Xbox/Xinput has a lot of room to grow and needs to grow. Controllers in general have a lot of potential breathing room when it comes to new inputs, but a lot of this is stuck in conceptual ideas, sketchy prototypes, and/or niche products. Wider input sets are a good thing, they allow the player to do more, look at what back buttons have done for just remapping alone, imagine what back buttons would do if they were an additional input and not just a remap, imagine what that would do once you start adding more than just back buttons; none of the ideas I've listed are too far out of reach, all of them can fit into the same modern controller package and not be out of reach, even the more outlandish ones like a back analog input has been shown to be viable in a prototype controller. There's even more ideas outside of this, I'm personally more concerned about input set expansions when it comes to controller evolution, but other improvements could be the type of switches used, which third parties have already explored such as the controllers that use microswitches like what Mice use, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see a mechanical switch designed for the size of controller buttons exists soon; GuliKit's spring box design, which adds a spring to the carbon contact switch design, could easily be adapted to be a mechanical switch instead. Sadly a lot of these never really catch on until a first party shows interest, which is the only reason why ES1 has paddles and ES2 has profiles and an integrated battery, plus the dpad change and swappable stick heights; hall effect sticks are really the next big thing to catch on.

But at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see much evolution in controllers from anyone. Just look at controllers, we've had the same essential layout since the PS1 when it introduced analog sticks, GameCube (though lacking a left shoulder), and Xbox (though lacking shoulders at first but still had the two additional inputs); N64 and Dreamcast were close, N64 lacked four action buttons and had four directional buttons in place of a second stick, and Dreamcast lacked a second stick. We've also had small iterations beyond this core layout, like motion and touch, haptics and force feedback, but none of these have changed or challenged the core layout, the largest iteration has probably been the addition of back buttons but this is seen as a 'pro' feature by first party and only because first party has taken interest in a third party addition. Even Valve didn't make leaps and bounds with it's touchpads, which is why they're a secondary peripheral on the Steam Deck, even though they dumped a lot into Steam Input API to have wide support and functionality of them. The best bet of anything becoming the next big controller evolution will be the 45° dpad switches, just for higher accuracy; and not them being implemented in the way I want as a discrete input, they'd be like Xbox's share button, a macro of button 1 plus button 2, the 45° would be a macro of direction 1 plus direction 2, which is a shame as discrete 45°s and mixed 22.5°s would be nice. The sad reality is that controller gaming from a first party offering won't move from the core layout that we've had since the PS1 dual analog controller, as back buttons are remaps, and while improvements like motion and touchpads add to the input set not everyone uses them and not every platform implements them, similarly with the extra system buttons and how we've gone from two to four of them. Outside of this, the only real evolution is hardware reliability.

[yisfire]

Next time, maybe Nintendo controllers evolution?
Great video, although I don't have an xbox console, this video is very interesting...
Keep the good work Kevin!

[indoctrahol]

The design for the Xbox controller is fantastic. Unfortunately, the off-center joysticks hurt my left hand. So it's parallel sticks for me.

[girlthatcouldhavebeen]

I still believe that the Duke is responsible for my pointing fingers being slightly bent now, lmao.
Man I loved that S controller as a kid. So much more comfortable.