The New Xbox 360 Controller Is Really About Patents [Microsoft Introduces A New Xbox 360 Controller With A New D-Pad That Scoots Around Nintendo Patents]

It’s an obvious photoshop job. The only differences with the new controller are a shiner chrome guide button, and the new D-Pad.

The Silver Halo Reach controllers’ buttons are still colored.

You think the ‘disc’ is the issue?! Well you’re wrong. The ‘disc’ was never an issue and if that is the only thing changed, than this revised controller does not solve the dpad problem.

I recently took apart my xbox Controller S and 360 controllers, and what I discovered is that with the exception of a revised top disc mold, they’re identical. The pivoting mold, which presses upon the rubber contact pad is virtually identical. They’re the same height, the only difference is color and a 2nd point to prevent the pad from rotating.

The PCB, however, was a different story and this is where I believe the problems we all have stems from. The Controller S has a traditional segmented contact point, and the 360 controller has an inter weaved contact point.

Both should be fine, except the dpad mold was designed to allow contact over a wider area, as a result, it has these two thin teeth, which run parallel and on the outsides of the contact points.

In other words, the weight is pressed over a small strike point and the interleaved contact point cannot get a strong signal because of this.

This explains why after making a disc to rest between the dpad and the rubber pad greatly improved the response and feel of the 360s dpad.

(I took the unfinished coaster/spacer from a pack of Amazon Basics DVD+R DL media and turned it into a disc, then shoved it between the two. Now the pad is amazing, thou very loud. Next step would be to try it with the teeth grinded down and a spacer of identical factory height.)

Controllers are high margin. Cost for assembly are somewhere around $15 (from foxconn).

Additionally, as another person pointed out, the Nintendo design patent expired long ago. It is not protected by patent.

thanks for this; as I always wondered why other consoles didn’t use the D-pad +; and instead always used the crappy disc d pad style lol… nintendo is very wise to have patented the + style d pad