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Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

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Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#231
post #214
post #145

Nothing Apple hasn't been doing for years at much greater magnitudes without many objections from the tech crowd. Makes me sick to the stomach, but everyone seems to love Steve Jobs, the genius inventor, that never actually invented anything and died of a treatable cancer because he actually was a complete moron and didn't get treatment, because "he knew better" and opted for alternative medicine. Which reminds me of…

Related: Wiimotes connect and function as bluetooth devices under both Linux and Windows but not Mac OS.

This feels like a new development. I regularly attached a wiimote over Bluetooth to my Mac in the teens. It was my go-to clicker for presenting slides. I needed a dedicated program to map the controller buttons to the inputs I wanted, but the wiimotes attached over Bluetooth without any extra hardware.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#232
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real problem here seems to be games doing aim assist in multiplayer

I'm competitive. I simply won't play FPS that have aim assist in multiplayer. If a controller has a disadvantage to KBM, they should learn to use KBM, not give them a built-in aimbot.

Or maybe they could just ban KBM play.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#234
This is nothing new in the console space. They have always had a brand standards for accessories since Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis. This is just the evolution of consoles always being online.

I can honestly say, at least with Microsoft they will ask nicely. Nintendo on the other hand will brick your devices out right.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#235
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At least you can google for the error code And find what information? Try turning it off and on again, update & reboot, then clean the registry?

On contrary, incorrectly typed generic error message leads to that types of boilerplate. Numeric error code correctly entered and searched usually leads to either description of exact widespread problem and workaround, or absolutely nothing, very binary and efficient.

Oh I'm not really saying that's better, just that the above is the kind of pain I remember from using Windows.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#236

> players have been encountering error “0x82d60002” OT: Microsoft should be banned by decree from showing naked error codes to people, I've been fighting them for decades now

No. The exact opposite. I'm sick of modern software telling me "something went wrong, try again later". Unless every possible error scenario gets its own descriptive error, that error code is a necessity. And nobody is going to accept a dev adding error messages to every possible error, because localisation to 180+ languages will cost a fortune. Your choice is between "something went wrong" and "something went wrong…

>Unless every possible error scenario gets its own descriptive error

I mean that's not out of the question, I force that in every codebase I use. The only one I find that difficult in is Kotlin, because it's a trash language that doesn't properly compose throwables.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, maybe I'm biased here as a PC gamer who frequently uses a controller... but why not just allow both? Some games like Gears of War on Xbox already do this. Others, like Fortnite, offer crossplay and just show a symbol over each player's head. Do mouse and keyboard players have an advantage? Sure. So do players with bigger TVs or Series X graphics or less worn controllers or the Elite controller. Big deal? The PC e…

> Why purposefully handicap your player base instead of letting them use whatever they want? for the same reasons giant corps do anything: Profit! they think, and likely will, sell more "official" (i.e. premium price) controllers

Realistically though, how much financial upside can we possibly be talking about here? Many controllers the enable this "cheating" were also probably +1 buys as well, not lost sales of official accessories. I just have a hard time believing that controller hardware sales are the primary driver of this.

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in the hundreds of hours I've played of multiplayer console FPSs, which are what these controllers are marketed towards[1], I think I saw a player with a modded controller once. yes they got an advantage from it, but FPSs are mostly about how fast you can aim not how fast you can shoot, so it wasn't exactly game-breaking also in Call of Duty at least, often semi-auto fire rates are capped at a human level anyway even…

macro controllers and AI controller inputs are a thing and are actually rampant in certain games. Just look on youtube for some of the Street Fighter 6 cheat videos that have popped up in the last few weeks. Also if you play games like Apex, Valorant, etc, there are macro controllers that will not only perform movement tricks for you but will do things like correct aim for automatic fire drift/spread or even (on PC)…

I just don't get it. I genuinely don't get it.

If you're cheating, you're not winning; the software or hardware is. What is the point? What do people get from this?

Re: Xbox will block third-party controllers to "preserve the console experience"

#239

> players have been encountering error “0x82d60002” OT: Microsoft should be banned by decree from showing naked error codes to people, I've been fighting them for decades now

Error codes are specific and can be looked up. The modern trend of "uwu we fucky-wucked up" cutesy error messages with no details whatsoever is inexcusable because of how much harder it makes to troubleshoot the error.

I like how bungie handles it. Known errors have codewords and if you see one it means they already know and documentation exists. It's also easier to connect with other players / support with your specific issue because general networking error ALFALFA will come up in different contexts than general networking error LENTIL.

I hate getting a 0x code from Windows because the search results are going to be completely useless, possibly not even for the program that I am trying to troubleshoot.

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