I’m a little bit of a sucker in relation to a flowery controller design.
Over time I’ve fortunately double-dipped and purchased a brand new controller, even when my present one is working completely properly, simply because I feel it appears to be like cool.
As a trustworthy Celtic FC supporter I’ve visited the Xbox Design Lab on no fewer than three events to make my very own inexperienced and white controllers – first for Xbox One controller, then a Sequence X controller, then an Elite Sequence 2 controller.
Fancy controllers are one thing Xbox has loads of expertise with. It looks as if nearly each month there’s another new color or restricted design getting the official Xbox Wi-fi Managementler therapy, from the nifty Aqua Shift one (which has a form of shimmering impact) to the good Forza Horizon 5 one with the seen rumble motors.
I’ve purchased just a few of those. Together with my launch Sequence X and Sequence S controllers and my aforementioned Design Lab ones I’ve personally forked over my hard-earned money for the clear twentieth Anniversary controller and the Starfield one (although I nonetheless haven’t even performed Starfield but as a result of, properly, you already know).
And but, the unhappy actuality is that the easiest of those Xbox controllers can’t really be purchased by the general public, as a result of they’re created completely as sweepstakes prizes.
That’s earlier than I even begin on the Xbox consoles too, that are given away in equally restricted numbers.
These aren’t sporadic one-offs: I’m not exaggerating after I say there are such a lot of of those. Right here’s a gallery displaying a bunch of good consoles and controllers, all of which got away by Xbox as prizes, and none of which had been made in the stores.
That’s not even all of them – that’s simply as many as I might handle to collect earlier than I might really feel the tears welling up and needed to cease.
There are no less than ten of these controllers in that gallery that will have, on the very least, pressured me to take a seat down with my pockets and have a critical dialog with it. And but, such discussions are pointless, as a result of they aren’t on the market.
Right now, nevertheless, is the ultimate straw for me, as a result of Xbox has introduced the most recent of its customized console sweepstakes and it’s even fancier than normal.
To have a good time the discharge of X-Males 97 on Disney+, Xbox is giving freely an Xbox Sequence X console wrapped in an unique two-page comedian created by Marvel writers and artists.
What’s extra, it’s additionally created no fewer than 11 controllers, every primarily based on a distinct X-Males character, and every packaged in a blister pack just like these the previous X-Males motion figures had been offered in.
“Every character involves life by means of distinctive controller designs, and is available in a 90’s impressed blister pack that makes for the last word collector merchandise,” Xbox says in its weblog article.
There’s only one drawback, in fact. What’s the purpose in “the last word collector merchandise” when individuals can’t gather them?
This could be merely annoying if Xbox didn’t have already got its personal methods of customising your console and controller. The very fact it does, and nonetheless chooses to maintain these from gamers, is simply bewildering.
The Xbox Design Lab website at the moment helps you to apply a Fallout design to your controller for an additional $14.99 / £12.99.
Thanks very a lot, however that’s the one customized sample out there primarily based on an IP – the remaining are camo, vapour or the (admittedly eye-catching) Satisfaction one. What if I need that Bluey controller as a substitute? Or the Pac-Man one? Or the TMNT ones? And for the document, I do. I’d pay further to pop these onto a Design Lab controller.
Clearly licensing is an element right here, but it surely needs to be famous that Xbox has really already launched a group of restricted version controllers primarily based on a third-party IP earlier than. Sadly, these controllers had been primarily based on House Jam: A New Legacy, and had been due to this fact of no use to anyone.
As for the consoles, you might have forgotten (like so many have) that again in August 2023, Xbox introduced that it was releasing official Xbox Sequence X console wraps.
Priced at $45-50 relying on design, these fancy wraps are “made with strong core panels which might be layered with high-tech cloth finishes” and “are folded round your console and secured with a hook and loop enclosure”.
Eight months have now handed since that announcement and we now have a grand whole of two wraps in Europe (Starfield and Mineral Camo) and three within the US (the earlier two plus Arctic Camo).
I might love to purchase a wrap for my Sequence X to present it a makeover however, with the very best of respect, I don’t wish to make it appear to be a soldier searching a polar bear. Give me that ’90s X-Males comedian design as a console wrap and I’ll fortunately chuck cash at you with the reckless abandon of a 41-year-old greedy desperately at his youth.
Finally, I get that the purpose of those sweepstakes is to advertise the model and to extend engagement with both the Microsoft Rewards platform or the Xbox Twitter account (relying on the place every sweepstake is held).
I can’t assist feeling, nevertheless, that they’re inflicting extra ill-will than goodwill at this level. I actually know that every time I see one other nice new design that I’m not allowed to purchase, and know that Xbox has gone to all that effort for one thing that may solely finally profit as few as one individual, I don’t really feel nice about it.
Come on Xbox, share the love a bit. I’m sitting right here, ready to present you cash, and I’m positive I can’t be the one one.
