If you were an early adopter of the original Xbox console, no doubt you have some fond, if not strenuous memories with the old "Duke" controller. For me, it's the controller I learned to play Halo (and failed miserably at btw) until I was able to get my own Xbox with the smaller model of the controller that came later. I would have thought that the Duke was best left in the past, but apparently, there are some that are longing to see a return. One such person is Xbox architect Seamus Blackley, who since moved on from being employed by Microsoft.
Back in October, Blackley tweeted out a proposal to Phil Spencer about potentially creating an Xbox One compatible Duke controller, but since then, nothing had been mentioned. That is, until yesterday.
As promised, I am doing actual work to see if we can release a new Duke. Please stay tuned! RT if psyched! pic.twitter.com/BhkKEk7IUQ
— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) December 6, 2016
Blackley is indeed actively exploring the possibility of an Xbox One compatible Duke controller, and as you can see from the number of retweets, there's a legitimate case to be made. The Duke was a rather clunky design, coming with six face buttons (A,X,Y,B, Black, White) instead of your standard four, even though the black and white buttons were mostly used for secondary interactions. The Duke was eventually replaced in 2002 in the US by the smaller controller, but it was still popular for fans of Fighting games.
We will see what comes from Blackley's work. It'll be a nice novelty at the very least.
Source: Twitter via Venture Beat
