The Xbox One will launch on November 22 in several markets in order to compete with the PlayStation 4's big near record setting debut. Obviously there's a lot to get excited about when it comes to gaming these days. However, arguably the most exciting thing to about the Xbox One that people are looking forward to getting their hands on is the only part they actually will put their hands.
The Xbox One's new controller took years to develop. In a recent interview, a Microsoft designer and manager explained the process involved in redesigning the controller's analog sticks and directional pad.
According to IGN, the controller was mostly meant to be an updated version of the Xbox 360. The design is lauded for its overall shape and size as well as the ultra-responsive analog sticks. The Xbox One has taken the previous controller's design and added ribbed edged on the top to give the gamer holding it a slightly better grip for more precise finger movement.
"The amount of effort that went into selecting the materials and the texture for the periphery of the thumbstick - this took months of work," Xbox's general manager for accessories, Zulfi Alam, told GamesBeat. "It's amazing how much effort goes into something so seemingly small like that."
In addition to the better control offered by the ribbed edges, the sticks are smaller in diameter to give the illusion of more precise.
"The smaller discs give the perception of greater accuracy," said another senior industrial designer Quintin Morris, via IGN. "Bit it doesn't affect performance otherwise."
Another area of improvement for Xbox was the D-pad. The 360 D-pad rested on a disc that was meant to make commands like "up/right" and "Down/left" easier for combinations in fighting games. However, the audience's reaction was not what they were hoping for.
"The D-Pad is a tricky input to design because people do different things with it," Morris said. "You think about Call of Duty - it's really alt keys. It's another set of buttons. It's not about directional input. But you think of Street Fighter, it's very much about sweeps and combinations and being able to do these gestures on top of this thing."
The Xbox One controller will come with every console when it is released on November 22.
