A blog post went up this morning on the official Xbox News site which was quite interesting. James Hunter, the Senior Director of Strategy and Business for Xbox shared that the Xbox Design Lab is Back!
Back in October 2020, Microsoft discontinued the program after giving a last call to anyone who wanted to still order a controller. The price back then was $80 for your Xbox controller and provided over 40 various color options across the controller parts. There was never really any explanation as to why the program was cut off but we are glad to see it back. There are other companies that provide custom Xbox controllers and I wonder if they will take a hit in sales with Xbox competing again in the space.
The orginal announcement from when they paused it:
Xbox Design Lab will be taking a break soon but there’s still time to create your own! Thank you all for sharing your beautiful designs over the years.
We’ll miss you Xbox Design Lab but eagerly await your return. 👀: https://t.co/WrnYgvyBVj pic.twitter.com/3CFWRMySZ4
— Xbox (@Xbox) September 21, 2020
Wondering what is the Xbox Design Lab is?
The Xbox Design Lab is a program that allows you to customize and create your very own Xbox Wireless controller. If the options are the market don’t tickle your fancy, you now have the ability to custom order your dream controller. You can customize essentially any feature on the controller including:
- Menu and Share busstons
- View
- ABXY
- Thumbsticks
- Triggers
- Bumpers
- D-pad
You can even laser engrave your name, gamertag or a custom 16-character message. Sounds like a great anniversary gift for your gamer partner if you ask me. On the website, you can get some color scheme ideas customized for specific games like PsychoNauts 2 and Grounded. The program starts today and customers can take their pick from 18 different colors for the majority of controller parts. Some of the new colors include Shock Blue, Pulse Red and Electric Volt. 30% of the options also have post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials.
You can follow all the design madness on Twitter with the hashtag #XboxDesignLab.
Specifications for Xbox Design Lab Controllers
- Connectivity: Connect to Xbox consoles with Xbox Wireless. Wirelessly connect to Windows 10 PCs, tablets, iOS and Android using Bluetooth.*
- Compatible With: Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Windows 10, Android, and iOS
- Battery: AA batteries for up to 40 hours of battery life**