Xbox 360 Wireless Controller is Improved, Drops Slightly in Price

From DailyTech: Microsoft is eagerly eying ways to make its console business unit even more profitable. Yesterday, the company announced its decision to bump the yearly subscription fees for the various tiers of its Xbox Live Gold service.

Today Lawrence "Larry" Hyrb, Director of Programming for the Microsoft gaming network Xbox Live and better known by his Live gamertag "Major Nelson", gave the world a sneak peek of Microsoft's upcoming revamped wireless controller, which Microsoft hopes will spur accessory sales.

The controller comes pre-packaged with Microsoft's Play and Charge kit, which current retails for $19.99 USD. The price of the bundle is $64.99 USD, a relative deal, given that the current controller, sans Play and Charge retails for $49.99 USD (for a total of $69.98 with Play and Charge).

There are definite improvements to the design of the controller itself. The D-Pad can be raised about a quarter of an inch by twisting it (this video better explains this feature), making it much more usable. The analog stick is more thumb friendly in that it's slightly more concave. And last, but not least the ABXY buttons have been changed from colored to monochrome translucent. And the entire controller is cloaked in a stylish silver matte.

Microsoft has yet to reveal whether the controller is going to be bundled with any of its consoles. In all, though, the upgrade looks like a welcome improvement at a fair price.

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