Microsoft Unveils New Xbox 360 Wireless Controller

adeelarshad82 writes "Microsoft unveiled a new wireless Xbox 360 controller, which features a revamped D-pad that transforms from a plus to a disc. The new D-pad was developed to address complaints from users. Other new features include: A, B, X, and Y buttons that are gray instead of the standard red, green, yellow, and blue; and a matte silver color. The controller includes 2.4-GHz wireless technology with a 30-foot range."

Comments

No colors = terrible choice

[nlawalker]

Getting rid of the colors on the buttons seems baseless. I can't tell you how many times...

Me: "Press A"
Her: ::moving thumbs, squinting:: "... huh?"
Me: "Green."

The twisty d-pad is cute, but largely strikes me as a way of getting around Nintendo's killer patent on the golden standard. I can't imagine who would want to use the disc, except for perhaps fighting games.

Play&Charge sucks, I hate having to mess around with dongly wires and other crap to use my controller just get rechargeable batteries.

Wrong thing to talk about on the d-pad

[DeeKayWon]

The change they made to the d-pad doesn't sound like it addresses the crappiness of the existing d-pad at all. I don't care about disc versus plus, I care about things like its tendency to register a diagonal press when trying to press a horizontal direction.

Seriously, take a 360 controller, hold left on the d-pad, and at the same time try to rock your thumb toward the up and down directions. It moves a lot! Using one on Windows, you can see in the controller properties how easily it registers diagonal presses. Now do the same thing with a Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2, which has a very similar d-pad. It's far less finicky than the 360 pad.

So really, how is this new d-pad supposed to fix that?

Re:Wrong thing to talk about on the d-pad

[ninjackn]

I love the D-pad and was sad to see it get ruined over the years. The NES, SNES and N64 controller got it right: nice large size, good button depth, and the area around and underneath the D pad was minimal.

The biggest problem with the xbox360 controller isn't the shape of the Dpad, it's too much plastic around and underneath it. The sega genesis controller has the same shape but it felt fine because when you held it there was a nice sized gap between the edge of the controller and the size edge of your palm and the "pinch" distance was small.

Take the SNES controller for example, the left edge of the controller to the d pad is only 18mm and the thickest part from the back of the controller to the top of the dpad is 22.3mm. The xbox260 is 36.5mm from left edge to dpad and 32mm from back to surface of dpad. That's just too much plastic to get in the way of thumb movement.

There's also the problem that the Dpad is really a giant stick. The total thickness of the plastic in the xbox dpad is something like 20mm, the SNES is 9mm (these are estimate measurements unlike the previous).