Hmm, maybe not a bad compromise price for anyone interested in the high-quality feel and heft of the thing… but arguably the rear paddles are the gamepad’s best feature and, yeah, those are sold separately for $59.99.
I wonder if the existing paddles are compatible?
The paddles thing is ridiculous. It’s the whole point of the controller and it’s just a few pieces of metal.
Everything MS does is based on data, so they probably have a good idea of how many people use those features.
Making them optional lets them drop the price and make it more attractive to more customers, and if you want all those then the price is just $10 more than the previous version. And did the previous Elite controller include a charging dock?
Speaking personally, I wouldn’t dream of buying an Elite controller without the paddles. The other stuff I don’t particularly care about.
Quick search online shows me I can buy replacement paddles for the Elite at Walmart for $10.
And Amazon has a wide variety of them, most of them for $12. Including official replacements.
You mean you wouldn’t spend $129.99 (or pounds equivalent) on what would basically be a regular Xbox controller that is less reliable than the base one? Weirdo! :)
I don’t understand the point of the Elite controller without the paddles.
It supports paddles. Lots of people prefer third party paddles so this is a cheaper way for them to get the setup they want. Or if your existing elite dies you have a cheaper replacement since those things are transferable.
Some people also hate paddles (which I think is weird, but it is a thing).
The fully white one has been leaked on eBay for month but this “new” CORE one looks like it may suffer the same mechanical defects and is prone to breakage just it’s decoupled from the case and the extra bits?
At least with it being decoupled from the charger and other parts it will be cheaper to replace the controller when it falls apart. Maybe that’s the market Microsoft is targeting. :)
What charger?
Elite 2 comes with a case and a charging dock thing.
Well, I was interested in this news for about 4 seconds.
Assuming the accessories are the same, I already got two sets because when Microsoft replaced the first defective one, they didn’t want me to send anything but the controller back, but sent me a whole new one with all the accessories and case.
Same. What the fuck? You sell a basic controller for $129.99 that can’t do anything a normal one can do and then charge for the stuff that made it “Elite” in the first place?
Floored.
Well, to be fair, the “core” elite still does lots of things that normal controllers don’t, like adjustable stick tension and trigger locks, along with the overall heightened build quality.
But really, I can’t imagine buying it and NOT getting paddles.
If you can separately buy reasonably priced paddles (as some folks said upthread) then that actually seems like a cost-effective option to me. Below $150 rather than over $200 is a pretty big difference for a gamepad.
I like the Elite controller and all, but citation needed. ;) The damn things fall apart all the time.
Heh. He must have meant that quality heft, not the longevity of the thing.
But I’m feeling much better about mine now that I opened it up and cleaned out the LB/RB button problem.
Other than the stick sensors, which seem like an issue with the sensor tech itself, I’ve never had anything bad to say about the build quality of the elite controller. They are super, super nice feeling.