Known as The Duke, the OG Xbox controller will be available again in time for the holiday season. Xbox One users will be able to use the pad on all games. The peripheral will also work with Windows 10. Microsoft is not making the controller itself. Instead, the company has collaborated with accessory maker Hyperkin. As you can imagine, the company has added some modern twists to the new Duke. Chief among them are the additional left and right bumpers. Other new additions include a logo display screen and a detachable three-meter cable. In its announcement, Hyperkin said the pad is a “faithful recreation of the original controller’s form factor.”
There is no doubt that the introduction is to coincide with Microsoft’s reveal that backwards compatibility now extends to the original Xbox. This means some selected titles from the first device will play on the Xbox One range.
The Duke
Derided for being massive and uncomfortable, the original Xbox pad was simply not as good as Sony’s dual analogue PS2 controller. For all the big selling consoles, many think The Duke was the worst controller. Although I would throw up the (equally dividing, but a personal favorite) N64 pad and the overly complicated Dreamcast pad, which shot for the stars and fell hard. As for Microsoft, the company would hit a run with its new console controller, the Xbox 360 game pad. The new Duke seems to be for nostalgia purposes. There is yet no word on price or a concrete release date.
