According to a story on The Verge, Microsoft will soon be making some minor adjustments to the way the Xbox One controller’s movements are picked up by the console. And it’s all because of the developers of Titanfall.
“It’s just fixing the controller input, really,” Titanfall design lead Justin Hendry told the site. “It wasn’t really where we felt it should be; it was a little overly twitchy with the current controls. Now it’s fixed. We’re happy with it.”
Seems Respawn worked with Microsoft to “make the analogue sticks more precise than before”, with the changes to be delivered as part of an upcoming Xbox One software update.
If this sounds a little crazy, it’s not: Killzone devs Guerilla Games played a role in the design of the new Dualshock.
We;ve contacted Microsoft for comment and will update if we hear back.
Microsoft will ‘fix’ the Xbox One controller at the request of ‘Titanfall’ developer [The Verge]
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26 responses to “Report: Microsoft ‘Fixing’ Xbox One Controller, Because Of Titanfall”
Pretty cool that the controller can apparently receive updates.
I think the update is more a long the lines of how the console processes the data that comes from the controller, rather than an update of the controller itself.
Firmware updates for peripherals aren’t really new.
By the sound of it it isn’t a firmware update to the controller, just a calibration tweak for how the XBOX One handles the input from it. Even if it’s not that impressive it’s still sort of nifty that they’re doing it.
I’ve heard there is a firmware update required for the controller to handle the upcoming stereo headset changes, they might squeeze this in at the same time.
What changes? All I heard was that it’s an adaptor that lets you plug in 2.8 or 3.5mm jacks, chat audio only. Literally no change, just a $30 overpriced adaptor.
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/02/11/some-caveats-come-with-xbox-one-headset-adapter/
Welp, conflicting info there. That article says game audio can be passed through the controller too.
Dunno, I give up now. :\
Well the new puck adapter and stereo headset have more buttons, so I guess it makes sense that the original controller firmware wouldn’t be able to make sense of them. That said, I thought that was the point of using the new style connection. Just pass it all directly through so you could slap anything on them.
The data port on the controller is capable of 5.1 game audio plus voice IIRC.
The new puck only handles stereo because it relies on a 3.5mm jack to connect headsets. If you have a headset that has a combined stereo/mic plug (or if use an adaptor to combine the 2 separate mic and audio of some headsets) you should be able to hook it straight to the puck and get everything thru the controller to the headset.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the controller itself has upgradeable firmware. It wouldn’t be a big step to have the console push out new firmware to controllers each time it is booted.
It sounds like you might be right, but it still seems a little strange to me. By making the controller that smart aren’t they just opening up potential vulnerabilities in the console itself? I would have thought with their original digital heavy vision they’d be locking down everything (the way they appear to have locked down the USB ports and access to storage).
They didn’t lock down the USB ports, they just haven’t added the functionality to do those things.
They’ve already said that they can expect those features this year.
It uses wifi direct (or similar), so yeah it’d be easy enough to push data across.
Damn, I was hoping this was gonna say they’d be fine tuning the bumper buttons placement.
Played titanfall beta yesterday and controls seems fine. I’ll wait for the titanfall controller to try the new fix.
So you got in? havent received any email or anything, assuming I’ve missed out
I got one, because I’m a level 4 EB World member. So if anyone else is a level 4 check your e-mail.
True, I hate EB, I’m level 2 because I bought a console there at launch, but otherwise I order from UK.
Same, I normally only go there if there’s a collector’s edition I really want that’s EB exclusive (GTA V) or if I really want to play a certain game day one and not have to wait for it to come in the mail (Dark Souls II, South Park: The Stick Of Truth), I’ve also traded a lot of stuff over the last 3 or 4 years..
I got a beta key from EB for preordering. The game is 40-60 FPS and 80% of the time its above 50 so it feels really smooth. Now I understand why the Devs made it to 6v6, any more than that the game will be real broken.
I’m hoping I can get a PC beta as well then I can decide which platform to go.
Its seems that Microsoft have placed many of the eggs in with Titanfall?
They did the same with Halo didn’t they?
Did that really work out for them though? I mean it tied Halo, the original XBOX and XBOX fanboys right together in a way that sort of kept people who weren’t hardcore Halo fans away from the console. You sort of had to drink the Halo cool-aid to own an original XBOX. =P It worked out really well in the end but it wasn’t until they went broader with the XBOX 360 that they really picked up steam.
Obviously coming off the back of the 360 things will be different with Titanfall, but I look at the way Halo was on the original XBOX or how Nintendo franchises are on the GameCube through Wii U and I’ve got to question whether it’s wise to link your console so closely to a handful of (from an outsiders perspective) similar games. I mean I look at the consoles that seen huge success and they’re all consoles that didn’t set one game (or genre, or developer) too far ahead of the rest and presented themselves as having something for everybody.
Definitely, and that essentially forms the basis as to why I plan to get a PS4 over an XBOne. I just see the PS4 as having a lot more potential in the future to a wide variety of games that cannot be found on PC. The XBOne to me looks like it’s still marketing itself towards the CoD “bro-gamer” crowd with regards to its exclusives (That said, interested in trying out Titanfall). That and a lot of its features don’t even apply to us Australians.
PS4 just seems to be a much better complement to my PC, 3DS and future WiiU (ZELDA!!!)
Anyone else find a few things about the Xbone controller significantly annoying?
Particularly because the 360’s controller worked perfectly.
My two controllers both seem to lose their signals occasionally causing the game to pause. They also don’t pick to the console as often as you’d expect when turning them on (the controller has to be plugged back into the console to sync properly).
The lack of a light to show you which controller is which players is retarded, they tried to use Kinect to work out who’s holding what (ie it shouldn’t matter), but my brother and I have had the console switch us over automatically between games of Forza despite not changing controllers (we couldn’t look more different either). It’s a fix for a problem that didn’t exist and it doesn’t work properly, kind of describes 80% of Kinect functionality.
The sticks get a bit “gritty” around the bases where they rub when moved to their extreme. My 360 controllers never did that and I’ve had some of them since launch.
One of the rumble motors in one of them is a bit loose and it makes a really annoying humming sound.
Ok, that’s a whole bunch of things. The controller definitely seems worse than it was on the 360, I have no idea how they manage to screw these things up.
Funnily enough Sony, who barely ever change their controllers, have made some solid improvements to the Duel Shock.
Sounds like you might have something wrong with your XBOX One or another device interfering with the signal. I’ve never had issues with dropping or struggling to connect, aside from the obvious ‘it just dies instead of showing you the battery is low’.
The only issue I’ve had with mine is that it doesn’t seem to be clipped together right. The right hand side isn’t bent or not clipped together properly, it just seems to be out of alignment with where it should be. I prefer it over the new Dual Shock, but they’ve both got things they could learn from each other.
I actually hate the thumb sticks on X1. Grease get stuck in the middle after long and sweaty play and it’s so hard to clean due to the curve on the thumb sticks.
I really hate how you cant see who is player one, two, three or four.
Quite disappointed overall. Should have gone PS4, these install times for games is an absolute joke.
Waiting for a miracle for the Xbone