The OG Xbox is known for many great things. The introduction of one of the biggest brands in entertainment and gaming, Halo, really pushing online gaming forward with Xbox Live, and much more. One thing it was criticised for was the very… awkward controller known as the “Duke” controller.
Eventually, changes were made so a more traditional controller could be used but for a while, all you could use was the interestingly designed Duke. The controller spawned a cult following and for whatever reason, it was popular enough that Xbox decided to greenlight a remake of the controller for Xbox One. After over a year of teases and prototypes, the controller has an official release date and price.
The Duke controller developed by Hyperkin in partnership with Microsoft will release at the end of March (no day given) for $69.99. There’s no word on if this will be a limited quantity item or if it’ll remain on shelves for the indefinite future.
The controller has a couple of new fancy features such as the jewel in the center being an OLED screen that displays the Xbox boot-up video everytime you touch it, a really cool nostalgic touch. There’s even some interest in possibly allowing game developers to use the screen for other things but the idea has yet to be approved by Microsoft. The man behind the project, Seamus Blackley, told CNET that he’s very happy the controller was greenlit by Xbox head Phil Spencer.
“I don’t know a lot of brands that would rerelease an unpopular product from the past … and Phil, I think correctly understands that it sends a message. He understands that it sends a message about how serious Xbox is about its heritage, and about the fans.” he says.
Seamus also noted that the controller also got some nasty feedback from Japan when it originally debuted due to the repulsive size of it.
“The controller was the size of most kids’ bedrooms in Japan! I saw this petition of Japanese game developers who said we had to make a smaller controller. When ‘Controller S’ got approved, I thought [the S stood for Seamus] — I figured it was to mock me because they thought it would fail,” said Seamus.
The Duke for Xbox One will hit shelves sometime in March. We’ll be sure to keep you updated when we have an exact release date.
