Xbox One Controller PC compatibility in 2014

[Andytizer 268]

"There is some work that we need to do to make sure that existing PC games that support the Xbox 360 controller will work with the Xbox One controller," a Microsoft spokesperson told Kotaku via email. "While it seems trivial, it’s actually quite a bit of dedicated work for all that to be seamless for the user. We know people want to use the Xbox One controller on their PC, and we do too--we expect to have the functionality available in 2014."

 

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[Andytizer 268]

Some more information from CVG: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/423871/features/the-100m-story-behind-the-xbox-one-controller/
 

New features over the current controller:

• new D-Pad
• 'Impulse' triggers (force feedback)
• micro-USB port
• reduced button latency

The introduction of the micro-USB is a nice benefit for PC gamers providing a nice option to play by wire, and is hopefully better supported than the DualShock 3 was for PC. However the wireless function will almost certainly require a new wireless dongle to use sync to PC.

 

I already have x4 wireless Xbox 360 controllers, and I don't see any particular benefits with using the new controller. Any thoughts? Will there be adoption of these once these come onto the market, or will PC gamers be sticking to the Xbox 360 controller?

[Garrett 210]

I don't currently plan on getting the new controller; I already have a wired 360 controller.

 

Having backwards compatibility sounds promising but the game developers' implementations may factor into it; there were a couple of games that worked correctly with the wired 360 controller but not the wireless one so there could be similar problems with the new controller.

 

DualShock 3 wasn't supported because there was no official driver and the unofficial ones were primarily designed for DirectInput (prior to XInput Wrapper), so any developer wanting to properly support PS3 controllers would have to implement overall DirectInput support anyway.

[Hungry eyes 6]

Meh, I doubt it'll bring much to the PC, and although I haven't personally held one, from what I've seen it looks more uncomfortable to use than the 360 controller.

 

I prefer wired because it got rid of that massive lump on the 360 controller, but if the Xbox One controller has the battery pack integrated then the controller will likely be too chunky for my tastes.

[Newmansan 30]

I'm curious as to why they couldn't just put out a driver that emulates the 360 driver down to rumble settings, and then put out the full featured driver later, but this is good news. No more crappy $40 wireless receiver that breaks at the drop of a hat.

[Garrett 210]

It could be that the controller already does show up as a 360 controller for some games but they're going to do some extra work to improve its detection and avoid a repeat of the problem a few games had with wired vs. wireless 360 controllers.

 

Games specifically targeting the new controller will need an expanded driver anyway since the Xbox One controller has new vibration motors in the triggers that can be tweaked individually. It still has motors in the handles (as with the 360 controller) so older games will probably feel very similar on the new controller.