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Xbox 2 to Have Wireless Controllers Standard
GamesIndustry.biz has the news that the Xbox 2 console, releasing this fall, will use wireless controllers by default. From the article: "Microsoft will be the first console manufacturer to ship wireless pads as standard with its hardware, but not the first to ship an official wireless controller; Nintendo has already enjoyed significant success with the WaveBird, its wireless pad for the GameCube."
Who came up with this idea... Energizer or Duracell?
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
If they are rechargable like a Gameboy, then you have the issue of being in the middle of a game and unable to continue because your battery just ran out.
If not, you have to change batteries all the time.
Either way, I hope they at least plan to give the option for a corded controller, for those of us that still like them.
There are rumors that the Playstation 3 would do the same as well.
Wireless controllers are an intersting option. But standard? Note that there are a whole bunch of corner cases that wireless joysticks have that haven't been well addressed yet. For instance, the Nintendo wavebird controller has no vibration capability. Most XBox wireless joysticks don't handle an XBox live headset or memory card.
Battery life is obviously a problem. I'd like to see docking cradles for the joysticks on the box itself so they can be charged and ready for play. (Or interestingly... maybe they could be connected with cables like they are currently for charging. So play with the cable while charging play without otherwise.)
And, of course, it's not as satisfying to get pissed off and yank the cable out of the box to demonstrate your frustration... (But it IS easier to throw the joystick across the room...)
So if the wireless joysticks are standard, does that mean there won't be any joystick "ports" on the box at all?
No doubt the Xbox2 controller will be so large it will house its own power generator.
I have a Wavebird and I am still impressed with the way it was engineered and it's battery efficiency, but I would guess an Xbox2 wireless pad will have a lot more to handle than the Wavebird does. For one, it has to deal with the bandwidth of not only registering button presses, but also the Xbox Live voice data to the headset, which goes through the controller in the current system. Plus I'm sure they are at least considering force feedback (rumble) support. IANAEE so I don't know how much more of a drain this will have on the batteries, but I would have to guess that it will be more than the Wavebird demands.
What's going to happen when you have an Xbox2 party and you have 4 consoles in one basement?
The wavebird doesn't eat batteries because it doesn't use the vibration features that most games have.
Wireless controllers are generally banned in tournaments, or at least restricted. With Wavebirds, for example, you don't want to be using one in a tournament, because if someone else sets their Wavebird to the same channel, all of a sudden you can't control your character anymore! And this is an easy thing to do, especially in a crowd with a bunch of people.
Even if the Xbox controller doesn't have channels and instead has some bluetooth-esque pairing strategy, you can still screw with it by building a device that simply spams the air with RF on the same frequency as the controller, nullifying all wireless controllers in the area. It's just a bad idea.
Rumble features are overrated and rarely useful. Do you even miss it when you play a game without the rumble feature?
It was a great feature and made the game alot less frustrating.
Logitech currently makes a controller for XBox that they claim gets 50+ hours on 2 AA batteries WITH vibration. http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details /US/EN,CRID=2311,CONTENTID=8182
I have the previous version which used 4 AA batteries. I use it to play while I'm on my exercise bike, since the cable on the regular controller would get caught in various moving parts of the bike.
Runs on 2 AA batteries, and I can attest to the 50+ hours of life that they mention on the site. Plus with rechargeables (say, a couple pairs), you're in good shape, and the "power pack" is non-proprietary and user-serviceable.
Do not touch -Willie
"Microsoft will be the first console manufacturer to ship wireless pads as standard with its hardware, but not the first to ship an official wireless controller; Nintendo has already enjoyed significant success with the WaveBird, its wireless pad for the GameCube."
Aah, so Nintendo was the first to have official wireless controllers?
How soon people forget. They were only beaten by, what, 2 DECADES?
Did the video game crash result in peoples' memories being wiped of everything that came before it?
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
I think it really depends on what kind of games you play. The rumble function is an integral gameplay feature in racing games like Rallisport Challenge 2 or music games like Amplitude, so I would be sad to see it go. And it can be put to good use in other types of games, too. But yeah, some games certainly don't make use of it.
You could replace it with audio/visual cues in some cases (not for rallying games though because you need that input while paying strict attention of already existing audio/visual input), but the point is kind of to engage yet another sense. It can make for a better gameplay experience if done correctly.
Anyway, I seriously doubt MS will not have rumble on their next-gen controllers.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
Not to mention the rumble feature has been linked to carpel tunnel, but that might just be because kids can play video games for 85 hours a week.
I can't even play for more than an hour without getting up and doing something, and I'm not exactly going to be on the cover of men's Fitness anytime soon.
Bugs are just features that have been fixed.