Why Xbox controller does not use Bluetooth for connectivity?

DualShock uses Bluetooth, even in it’s PS4 version, so it seems Bluetooth can handle game controllers just fine…

So is there a reason Microsoft is using proprietary wireless solution for its Xbox controllers?

Why not use a standard that would allow the use of controller on various devices without the need for additional receiver?

Is Bluetooth license too expensive or something?

PS. The same goes for wireless gaming mouses and keyboards - why they insist on using their own dongle instead of just giving Bluetooth support?

Because they want to sell you an additional receiver.

$$$$$$$$

Which ‘Xbox controller’ are we talking about here? Because the Xbox 360 controller came out 9 years ago and I’d be more surprised if it DID use Bluetooth. If you’re talking about Xbox One controller, it’s probably part of their continuuing plan to alienate everyone.

PS3 is the same generation as XBox 360 and its controller uses Bluetooth. And what do you mean by the “plan to alienate everyone”?

PS3…kinda uses bluetooth for controllers, but it’s apparently a bit odd. The technology was a lot less ubiquitous back then, and the PS3 was aggressive about a LOT of new tech. (Blu-ray, Cell Processor, etc.) And it was a joke about how Microsoft has gone around aggravating gamers with the whole Xbox One release.

XBone controllers are wireless, right? And aftermarket makers can make compatible ones, right?

So explain to me why it matters *which *wireless standard, or proprietary system, is used? Other than for tech-squeeing and pointless argument?

Laptops have built-in Bluetooth, so do other mobile devices - Xbox controller needs additional receiver. See the difference?

No. Tech-squee, IMHO. Why on earth should MS have to make a controller compatible with your laptop or iPhone?

Because they sell PC operating system, tablets and mobile phones?

They sell adapters to use them on those platforms (PCs/laptops anyway, not iphone). So they see the usefulness of it. So if it’s not technically more difficult, or more expensive, and has no downsides (not proven, but you’re asking in the hypothetical), then their refusal to do so is a choice to reduce the device’s capabilities in the hopes of selling those capabilities back to the consumer at a markup.

This sort of anti-consumer behavior makes people grumpy. Why shouldn’t they object to what they see as an anti-consumer business practice?

I am pretty much the very last person on the board who would take a… let’s see, pro-anti-consumer position. However, I don’t think any company is bound to deliver what its consumers demand, not if it has other priorities and the consumers are basically demanding it at no added cost.

Would it be just wonderful and standardized and let all kinds of cross-platform fun happen if XBone controllers were standard BT? Sure. Do you think MS has never heard of BT? Unlikely. Do they, as pointed out, serve pretty much the whole spectrum of consumer info/tainment devices? Given.

So, given that MS is pretty certain to have seen the big picture, I’d put more money on the bet that they chose the wireless method for XBone controllers for engineering and cost reasons than so they could* chuckle, snort *get another $20 out of some small subset of the market that wants to use those controllers on other platforms.

So I guess you can get all kinda butthurt because your controller won’t work transparently with Candy Crush on your phone, and add it to the long list of ways evilMS works to screw you, the poor gaming consumer… but even from my very extreme position on consumer economics, I can’t agree with you. Because you want something - basically for free - does not make it an obligation for the maker. And the masses of users/buyers/tech blog writers don’t necessarily have a position from which to outguess MS’s engineering and finance choices.

The official reason is because Bluetooth is too slow for their needs and the proprietary 2.4GHz wireless is more responsive.

I’m not about to argue this, but that’s the party line reason.

So, companies do have the right to deliberately cripple their products so they can get more money out of a “small subset” that would want to use these features? They have the right to do whatever as long as it will make them more money. Sounds pretty anti-consumer to me.

And I put “small subset” in quotes because the Xbox 360 controller was pretty much the standard PC controller. It is natively supported out of the box in modern PC games.

Engineering reasons are fine, if they are legitimate. Doing it just to make money? That’s pretty much what pro-consumerism is fighting against.

People are forgetting that Microsoft’s wireless receiver for PCs is the replacement of the wired Xbox 360 controller they used to sell when the system was first released. It was only later that they released the receiver and stopped selling the wired controller because that’s what consumers wanted.

As for the Xbox One, why change what isn’t broken? Designing a new wireless communication tool for controllers or using Bluetooth is a change that takes engineering resources away from some other part of the system. MS instead chose to use the same wireless standard and improve the controller.

It’s a different standard. Xbone controller is incompatible with Xbox 360 controller PC receiver.

In short, yes. You’re free to explain, at any length you choose, how and why say, the FTC or any other body should step in and dictate how MS should have designed the wireless connectivity for that product.

You can add a paragraph about how a company producing an integrated product is bound to respect other uses of that product, and adjust their engineering and cost decisions (and, to be fair, marketing decisions) to accommodate that bind.

Most if not all of what consumer product companies do is “anti-consumer” in many respects. However, I’m not buying the argument here. It’s their product, their market, their internal priorities - their choice. There simply isn’t enough money in selling adapters to make it a driving concern for the choice, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that it’s due to more substantial and relevant points. If one of those is that they wanted to create a more closed model for the XBone, excluding even 360 compatibilities - their choice.

Who are you to say what engineering reasons are “legitimate”? Does the console function? Do the controllers work with the console? (Barring minor issues, I believe the answer is ‘yes’ to both.) Did you get what was advertised and listed on the box? Yep. Do you have some entitlement to components you can easily repurpose, at that or any other price? Nope.

So Microsoft is in the charity business, getting its jollies building extremely complex and expensive toys for gamers out of the goodness of Bill and Melissa’s hearts?

Or is it that the console market should be a regulated one?

Or is it a free market of a *hugely *nonessential product in which they build, you buy and either one of you is free to say, “No, thanks”? In which they get to choose features, cost, marketing direction and pretty much everything else, and you get to leave yours on Best Buy’s shelf, gathering indignant dust?

I’m not quite sure what “pro-consumerism” is but I’ll guess you meant pro-consumer and assume you mean “anti-consumerism.” Not that it matters, as you have a very tenuous and self-serving grasp of all three. No workable definition of the concept can be boiled down to “I want it, so they have to provide it, and at whatever cost I deem appropriate.”

Far too many consumers, especially those making privileged niche purchases, seem to think that “consumerism” is the opposite to "getting what I want, the way I want it and when I want it (which is often ‘now’ or sooner). Here’s a signpost back to the right road: your inability to buy crap on your terms needs to be analyzed from the “buy crap” aspect, not the “on your terms” one. That’s what consumerism, and its anti-, refer to.

You can get a bluetooth mouse or keyboard. I have a bluetooth mouse and I know I’ve seen bluetooth keyboards on Newegg.

Yeah, but probably not the gaming mouse. Gaming mouses have higher resolution sensors than office ones, which is not only good for games, but often for regular work if you like precise and fast mouses…

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If you’re to continue this silly and self-serving argument, you can perhaps stop pulling it out of… thin air.