New Xbox 360 controller with twist-up D-pad coming Nov. 9, bundled with charge kit for $65

by James Ransom-Wiley on Aug 31st 2010 12:35PM

It's the Xbox controller with a twist! As indicated by our source, Microsoft has announced a redesigned Xbox 360 wireless controller. The new gamepad will debut in a matte silver color with gray-toned face buttons and analog sticks with a more dramatic concave shape. Key to the new design is a "transforming" D-pad that changes from a semi-flush disc to a pop-out plus sign by twisting the D-pad clockwise. (Check out Major Nelson demonstrating the transformation in the video after the break.)

Microsoft offers this suggestion for how you might use the two D-pad configurations: "Select the traditional plus for distinct cardinal direction movement in games like Halo: Reach to change weapons and perform complicated combinations and deadly finishing moves in Street Fighter games, or rotate the D-pad to the disc format for sweeping motions in games such as Pro Evolution Soccer 2011."

The redesigned controller will only be available with the Play & Charge Kit. The bundle will launch on November 9 for $64.99.

Xbox 360 Wireless Controller (transforming D-pad)

[Thanks to AwakePlace, Jas and Lukas!]

Source: Major Nelson, Xbox Press [Press Release]

Tags: controller, d-pad, gamepad, microsoft, peripherals, play-and-charge-kit, release-date, silver, transforming-d-pad, xbox

Reader Comments (215)

64 dollas?!

How 'bout we trade in the bullsh!t controllers we have already for free.

@ShadowXIII

1. Take 'em to your local Gamestop.
2. Get 17 dollars per controller.
3. ?
4. Not profit.

@HazyCloud

Also, it looks problematic as well...do a fireball and your pad moves.

@ShadowXIII lol you talk like the current xbox controller humped your sister. idk how the current dpad can piss you off so bad bro

@ShadowXIII; Only if you're player 2.

Not if you play as player 2*

@MrKr3w

Try playing ranked matches with that frikkin' pad on any fighting game.

@Haelie

My bad, your right. Hurricane kick then.

A 'roll' move in general looks like it would cause issues though.

@ShadowXIII

maybe it has a lock feature, also, i don't see why you feel entitled for a free "upgrade", it's a new controller, nothing is wrong with the one you have now.

@BrianH ...except that it has the worst d-pad of any console in the last 20 years?

Its only $30 more for the new dpad, quit your bitching. On second thought, bitch away.

@ShadowXIII

He mentioned it comes with the play and charge kit too. Guessing there won't be any sold without it... so that is extra pricing as well. Surprised nobody mentioned that already to be honest.

@ShadowXIII

I think ill be picking up the Razer Onza at 50$ instead. The only downside to the Razer is its wired, but I rather have a wire then the huge bulge from the current controllers battery pack.

This is just a guess but, I would think that the D-Pad locks in place when you choose the "cross" or "bowl". Honestly it couldn’t be that easy because Major Nelson had to use both hands to change it around.

$64.99 is a lot especially since it’s late in the Xbox360’s life. Most gamers have plenty of controllers and play n’ charge kits already but, you have to applaud the effort. This controller mixes both to approach the whole Xbox360 base but, tailors to the hardcore more with the grayed out A,B,X,Y buttons. To add it’s the first white controller that’ll match Elite’s and those COD4 Xbox360’s out there.

When it comes out in the holiday season just hint at your wife/girlfriend or someone else in the family as a gift. At $64.99 it’s one of those presents that’s in that price range that’s not to small and not overkill at the same time.

@WiNGSPANTT from TopTierTacticsco

ok, it has the worst d-pad, that doesnt entitle you to a free upgrade.

it's not like ms planned this 4 years in advance, and if that's what you think, you are seriously stupid

@ShadowXIII
My favourite part is when he says the engineers went back and redesigned it for them.
More like: "After listening to complaints about the d-pad for 5 years, we decided to finally make some minor improvements and charge completely obsurd amounts of money"

@ShadowXIII

I was thinking the exact same thing. I'm hoping there's a way to lock it in. If not we may be waiting another 5 years before they decide to go fix it.

@BrianH
Say that to people who bought a whole new 360.

Why the hell isn't this bundled with the 360 S, exactly? Suddenly a PS3 purchase instead of "upgrading" my 360 seems a whole lot more appealing.

@Demaar

Your PS3 purchase looks more appealing on the basis of how Microsoft chooses to market a controler? Really?

I mean, there are plenty of reasons for your PS3 purchase to look appealing, but a simple controller isn't one of them.

@HazyCloud

1. Trade your controller into GameStop
2. Get 18.70 with your edge card
3. ?
4. Still not profit

@PlatinumSkeet
MS is killing me with the costs of controllers this late in the game. I already have a bunch of wireless controllers, then after years they finally fix the flaws and charge that much!? On top of it, they offer the Kinect, and that's another 150. So, now I have to consider whether to buy these new add-ons while at the same time worrying that they are going to throw another console out the door in a short time, and I will have wasted a lot of cash. I feel like I'm being shafted here.

@Duke
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/30/xbox-live-subscription-prices-to-rise-60-for-1-year-beginning/

@ShadowXIII lol $65 and it still doesn't look that good.

@Duke

i will admit that the 360 is the worst value right now in gaming, imo, behind PCs

you pay 300 dollars for the console, then 200 for a hard drive upgrade, 150 for kinect, 4 controllers is what? 200 more? 150? 50 dollars a year for online? now going to 60?

that 850 for hardware (already more than a decent gaming pc), then over the course of 4 years, another 200 for xbox liv, up to 1050.

and lets be honest, a ton of people have paid this much.

and well, you are paying 60 dollar, 10 more than the average PC game, even then, you dont have steam sales.

people call me insane for saying pc gaming is affordable, but if you have a 360, you've probably already spent more money than me.

@ShadowXIII

Wow that's a load of cash. In the boardrooms I have to believe the thinking is " they're already in for 600+, what's another 130". Then they laugh and call consumers idiots.

@ijustw1n

most consumers are idiots

@ShadowXIII

It is not just a controller

it's a bundle Controller + Recharge kit, so you won't spend anything with battery. (that's good!)

onde the other hand...

The ps3 controller is more than 10$ cheap and does the same thing with an awesome D-Pad! Wow!

@ShadowXIII
$64 w/ mandatory charge kit.

...Must there always be a catch, Microsoft? Every product you release for 360 has some handicap that will punish you later unless you shell out the full cost of the best offering available. This time you just put the punishment upfront.

@ShadowXIII If your playing a fighting game and want to be ranked you really shouldn't be using anything other then a arcade stick.

@ShadowXIII
Yeah Shadow, I was trying no avoid thinking about that railroading too much. A price increase due to features my tv does for me or because of kinect...a device that I don't have and costs too much itself. Really, MS is hitting us real hard right now.

@ShadowXIII

ShadowXII,

Hey, Microsoft needs to find some way of recouping the amount of money they've pissed away on Kinect. Raising the cost of Live! 20% over features most people couldn't give a rat's ass about (some of which need to be paid on top of the cost of the service) and increasing the price of a simple controller redesign (that's five years too late) to the point of making it a non-purchase for most of us seem to be the first two steps of MS's inane plan. I'm sure step three will, similarly, be a slap in the face to anyone who owns their system. Remember, getting Circus du Soleil to pointlessly confuse a huge crowd of people in order to promote a peripheral that, with each passing announcement, gets less appealing wasn't paid for hugs, kisses, and bedtime stories.

@PlatinumSkeet It's silver, not white. But I like the grayscale buttons.

I would just be worried that the D-pad would break eventually. Anything with moving parts seems to have a short life-span in my house.

@BrianH Actually, it's $300 for the 360S, which already comes with a wireless controller and a 250GB HDD. So take away the $200 for an HDD upgrade, take off the $50 for a controller as you only need three more. So, that would be $300 + $50 + $50 + $50 + $100 (for the Live family plan, which I would assume is needed if you're buying three more controllers) = $550. Much, much, cheaper than any decent gaming PC. Last year, you probably would've been right, but I think they're trying hard to fix what was (not necessarily) broken.

You'll see I left out Kinect, as it's safe to assume any gaming family that sees Kinect as a perspective purchase would already own a Wii. I mean, who doesn't these days?

@Monark360

I wouldn't say much, much cheaper. A decent rig can be built for around $600 (provided you've got another desktop to scavenge parts from, which is usually the case); a Phenom II X 955, a decent AM3 motherboard, 4GB of DDR3 1333, a GTX 460 1GB, and a 620W PSU comes out to around $569.99. Another $100 gets you a 64bit copy of Windows 7 if you don't have an OS. $700 can get you the whole she-bang (case, PSU, optical drive, HDD, and the parts I just listed) depending on where you shop.

@Xcrucio
I was still going to get a PS3. It just means I'll be getting one much sooner than planned :)

@BrianH

1. you don't have to buy a bigger HDD
2. you don't have to buy kinect
3. you don't have to buy 4 controllers, not to mention the fact that the console already comes with a controller, so unless you're buying an extra one cause you're raging at being proven wrong
4. you're trying to compare 4 years worth of online play to your apparent 'set up cost'
5. not to mention the fact, you don't have to buy live

So let's look at this.

You've payed 300 dollars, which as someone has previously mentioned which I noticed when scrolling back is for the 360s which comes with a 250gb HDD.
And if you feel like it you're paying a yearly amount for live, which is easily reduced by buying time cards on sale around the time you need to recharge.

It's always fun to compare reality to your 1k price.

@HazyCloud New impression confirms about the price of this one. And its looking good. http://go9.us/zi2

Just buy the ps3. You already have a functional xbox, why would you ever want to pay full price for an "upgrade" to a slightly better version of what you already own. You must be an iphone user too, how many times have you "upgraded" that?

Nice controller.

@thisredengine
At $65, I imagine the solid gold interior is even nicer.

@thisredengine
Am I the only one who sees a unibrow on the new controller?
It's freaking annouying

@Ikser
It's Annyong?

@imadogg

best reference ive seen in weeks. well done.

@imadogg
Indeed, lets make fun of the misspelled word. Sorry folks, the "O" and "Y" were to close on the keyboard that day.

Do we know yet if this controller will eventually become the standard pack-in controller? (Obviously they'll need a black version for the "S" model) There shouldn't be any reason why this isn't packed in after November 9th.

@HazyCloud Yeah thats what im wondering too. It wouldn't make sense to keep making two different types of controllers. Hopefully sometime in the future it will be the pack in controller. Probably after they deplete the stock on regular 360 controllers..

@HazyCloud As the packaging photos show, this is a "special edition" controller, meaning it's unlikely it will ever become a pack-in, or at least not for another 6 months or so until they release an updated black version with colored buttons, or basically just update the current controller to include the twist-pad.

This is just a special edition controller, much like the red controller.

@sgt quackers

I think it'll just get phased out like Sony did when they went with Dualshock and dumped Sixaxis.

anything else microsoft?

Why make it flush at all?

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New Xbox 360 controller with twist-up D-pad coming Nov. 9, bundled with charge kit for $65

Xbox 360 Wireless Controller (transforming D-pad)

Reader Comments (215)

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 12:38PM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 12:40PM HazyCloud said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 12:41PM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 12:46PM MrKr3w said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 12:46PM Haelie said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 12:47PM Haelie said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 12:48PM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 12:51PM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 12:56PM BrianH said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 12:59PM WiNGSPANTT from TopTierTacticsco said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 12:59PM aughscreennames said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 1:03PM Rhu said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 1:04PM XGM said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 1:08PM PlatinumSkeet said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 1:12PM BrianH said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 1:14PM Brodo said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 1:16PM NinjaJesus said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 1:20PM Demaar said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 1:29PM Xcrucio said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 1:40PM ExDogma said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 1:45PM Duke said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 1:50PM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 2:02PM phinn said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 2:11PM BrianH said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 2:19PM ijustw1n said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 2:32PM BrianH said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 2:54PM Ashkental said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 2:58PM Cru said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 3:17PM josephmeraz said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 3:21PM Duke said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 3:55PM jackal said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 6:00PM raygungirl said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 7:10PM Monark360 said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 7:37PM jackal said

Posted: Sep 1st 2010 5:22AM Demaar said

Posted: Sep 1st 2010 9:55AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Sep 2nd 2010 4:30PM reenagleez said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 8:57AM easo said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 12:39PM thisredengine said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 1:43PM Manifest37 said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 2:36PM Ikser said

Posted: Aug 31st 2010 7:30PM imadogg said

Posted: Sep 1st 2010 9:58PM LENSconcept said

Posted: Sep 3rd 2010 12:24AM Ikser said

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