mentions Microsoft 's Xbox Elite controller, and most console players are sure to be familiar with it. As Microsoft's pinnacle in the field of game controllers, its expensive and extremely easy-to-use features make countless players love and hate it. Recently, a new game controller design patent for Microsoft was exposed, which shows that an LCD screen will be added to the controller in the future.
According to relevant patent documents, the screen of this controller of Microsoft will be located in the middle of the upper part, and the specific location is in the same area of the touchpad of the Sony Dual Sense controller. This screen will be used to send notifications when the player connects to the host or other device, so that players can easily switch between the host and the cloud service. As for other key layouts and even overall shapes, they are no different from the current controller standard for the Xbox Series series.
In fact, placing a screen on a gamepad is not Microsoft's first, but this design has a very long history. As early as the Dreamcasttml2 (hereinafter referred to as DC) host of Sega back then, the handle was equipped with a screen, which also led to the fact that the handle of this host is completely different from the previous Saturn and MD's handles.
At that time, Sega made this change on the DC controller to match the visual record card. This visual record card born under the influence of the electronic pets of the same era can not only realize the operation of not completing archive copying and deletion through the game console, but also supports a variety of mini games. But unfortunately, because DC's business-level defeat made all designs meaningless, as Sega withdraws from the game console field, the concept of screen controllers is also blocked.
Next in 2004, Nintendo launched the Nintendo DS (hereinafter referred to as NDS) handheld console. This model equipped with upper and lower screens brings a richer human-computer interaction experience, and directly changes the interaction between players and games. Then on the 2012 WiiU, Nintendo brought the GamePad controller that also had a screen.
At that time, Nintendo even proudly claimed on the release of new products that with the help of WiiU's off-tv play function, the GamePad controller can be transformed into a tablet computer. Players can take their tablet to the bathroom and then come back to play on the TV. Two players can even play on TV and the other with the GamePad controller.
However, Nintendo launched the GamePad controller with screen on WiiU, which is also closely related to the background of the times. This period was the era when smartphones represented by iPhone were rapidly rising. Nintendo also keenly captured the signs of the arrival of the multi-screen era and believed that TVs will no longer be the only choice for home entertainment, and multi-screen collaboration may be the general trend. So the GamePad controller carries the second screen of the game console. With the help of off-tv play streaming, players can not only play on the sofa in the living room, but also play games on the bed in the bedroom or anywhere else in the home.
But the result was beyond Nintendo's expectations. After experiencing the great success of Wii, WiiU became the second most failed host in its history to be regarded as the black history Virtual Boy. Since then, from Sega DC to Nintendo WiiU, the design of "screen on the handle" seems to have become a curse, and any host used is a failure.
But why does Microsoft "do not believe in evil"? As Sega DC's partner back then, Microsoft obviously knew very well that DC's failure had nothing to do with the design of the controller and the screen. The lack of game masterpieces caused by Sega's rush strategy and the overly advanced technology used, resulting in insufficient production capacity and , are undoubtedly the root cause of DC's final failure.
But the problem is that the failure of WiiU has a lot to do with the GamePad controller. It is true that WiiU's special architecture makes it very difficult to develop third-party game manufacturers. In addition, WiiU, as Nintendo's first high-definition console, lack of development experience in this type of game has also made the first-party game difficult to produce. "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" was not developed until WiiU was almost in a state of cold weather.Of course, more importantly, GamePad has indeed become one of the reasons why WiiU is not favored by players, because when using WiiU, you can only choose one of two, that is, either the field of vision is focused on the TV screen or you can only focus on the GamePad.
The most fatal flaw of the concept of "screen on the controller" is that in the traditional sense, players use the controller to play games in order to always look at the TV screen in a head-on manner, without looking down at the controller to confirm whether the operation is correct. In fact, from arcade rockers and buttons to handle rockers and buttons, the innovation of gamepads has always revolved around ensuring a comfortable grip and improving player input efficiency.
So putting a screen on the handle is a design that distracts players' attention. The sense of separation brought by the screen on the handle and the TV screen interact with players at the same time is an unavoidable and difficult to solve. In fact, what Microsoft described in the new handle patent document is that this screen is used to send notifications when a player connects to a host or mobile device. But this is obviously a bit inconsistent. After all, if you really want to notify the player that the device is switching, a simple vibration or sound can work.
If you want to pursue multi-screen collaboration, with the current highly mature smartphones and the useful cloud gaming pull force, it is obviously not necessary to put another screen on the controller. Therefore, we really cannot guess what role this screen, which is less than a palm-sized screen on the handle, can do at this stage.
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