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Microsoft Stops Making SideWinder Peripherals
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a GameSpot article mentioning that Microsoft has discontinued its SideWinder range of gaming peripherals, which includes joysticks, gamepads, and racing wheels. According to the article, "..a Microsoft representative said the decision is a result of the continued decline in sales of all PC game controllers and the fact that most PC games are designed specifically to be controlled with a mouse and keyboard." What did you use your PC joystick/gamepad for, and why do you think the SideWinder PC peripheral market was popular in the first place?
Is it surprising that there is a decline in games requiring peripherals other than a mouse and keyboard when Microsoft themselves seem to produce the majority of their games to be controlled by, erm, mouse and keyboard?
Same here, only I bought Mechwarrior Mercenaries, then bought the Sidewinder 3d because it was so perfect with that game. The "walk in one direction, shoot in another" element made the game a lot better.
Like others, I was impressed with the joystick, but exceedingly UNimpressed with the driver. Once I upgraded from 95 to 98, the joystick would flake out on a regular basis (rarely less often than every hour) and a hard reboot would be necessary. That made it pretty useless for long gaming sessions.
From that point on, I avoided MS joysticks. The sad part is that there's not much competition (and never really has been) in the mid-range gaming peripheral market: you either have to buy the $10 el-crap-o joystick or the $200 Flightmaster Deluxe Extreme Pro with 25 little buttons under your fingers.
Forward, retransmit, or republish anything I say here. Just don't misquote me.
Micosoft's force feedback controllers were outstanding products. I have a force feedback joystick and a steering wheel. I bought the steering wheel first for car racing games then got the joystick for flight simulator games. Both controllers were solidly build and have stood a lot of abuse.
Keyboards and mice are just not meant to be used with simulator games.
With a keyboard I would be happy land somewhere near a airport.
With a joystick I can actually land it on the runway.
Agreed.
As for why sales suck for PC controllers, well maybe this can explain it:
I use a gravis gamepad pro, exactly the same as a PlayStation controller. It is fully mappable to any keyboard configuration required. I've had it and used it exclusively as my only game controller on my pc for 6 years. (Amazingly it's worked on every MS OS since 95).
Obviously, I haven't bought any MS controllers in that time, why would I? I'm willing to bet there are a slew of people out there like me that have their controllers they like and use and have no intention of buying another.
How many people do you think go out and buy a new set of car-simulation controllers regularly? Good enough is good enough.
Now, this begs the question, if good ole billyboy really wanted to save the sales of these controllers he'd have to change something in Win to force people to go buy new controllers with that 'perceived-must-have' feature. How's about programmable controllers with upgradeable memory? jk.
Anyways, I think you get my point. Think I'm on the right track?
No Comment.
...so I bought a Sidewinder. It was great for about a month, then it started drifting randomly, and finally settled on a slight turn to the left.
In sum, sidewinders are like most other M$ products, good in theory, crap in execution. It's too bad they don't have a real production cost for their O/S or they might discontinue that product line as well.
...the obvious conspiracy theory here: that MS is dropping this because they want joystick/keypad gamers to switch to the XBox.
And maybe it's a good theory to ignore. It's not much of a conspiracy theory when it's the company's official published roadmap. Why should Microsoft continue to lose money on peripherals which are used to go counter to one of their strategic goals (to get PC gamers to switch to XBox)?
Eternal vigilance only works if you look in every direction.