Xbox Design Lab, the company’s build-your-own-controller assembly line, is finally expanding to Australia.
We are among 11 countries that will now have access to Xbox’s custom controller program. The other lucky 10 are Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Norway, Slovakia, and Switzerland.
The Xbox Design Lab is used to create and customise your own Xbox Wireless Controller. You can choose the colour scheme from 23 available shades, the type of buttons, and even get a message engraved if you wish. You can change the pattern, swap out plastic grips for something more rubberised, add paddles … there’s a lot you can mess around with. With great power, of course, comes great responsibility. You can use the Design Lab to create something beautiful, or you can do what Ruby did and let her base urges overtake her and bring this piece of sparkling magnificence into the world.
Ruby came to me and she said “I’m still thinking about Kirby. I think the controller’s going to be Kirby-themed.”
I asked her not to create any licensing issues that might put us in legal hot water, so to throw off the fuzz, she carefully named it Lil’ Baby Bingus.
Bingus is a soft pink Xbox Series X|S controller, with bright pink sunken control sticks and matching L and R buttons. It features white menu buttons, clear white face buttons, and a rose gold indented D-Pad.
The rear of the controller is is Kirby-pink, with rubberised white LT and RT triggers.
Pricing on controllers from Xbox Design Lab varies. If you get a fairly basic controller and don’t tack on any extras like rubberised triggers, metallic surfaces, or different sticks, you can expect to pay around the standard $89.95-99.95 ticket price you’d see at your local EB Games. If you do start embellishing your controller, the price will start to rise. If you do what Ruby’s done and change as much as you can to create something fully personalised and laser-etched, it could run you closer to $140.
Obviously, only you can decide how much a customised controller is worth to you. If you’re happy with the standard options, and there’s no real reason not to be, then Design Lab won’t be of much use to you. If, however, you rarely buy an extra controller and none of the mass-produced models in stores appeal, then Design Lab might be the way to go. You can find out more about Xbox Design Lab right over here.
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