Guitar Hero controllers on PS3 and XBOX360?
December 30, 2013 11:11 PM   Subscribe

I picked up an XBOX 360 Guitar Hero controller for very little money at a thrift store. But I do not have an XBOX, I have a PS3. So I have been doing some eBay research, but I am still rather confused.

The XBOX controller is quite wireless indeed, and does not even need a dongle?

The PS3 controller DOES need a "Guitar Hero" dongle, which plugs into the USB port of the PS3, and they are $50 each and rather hard to find?

Where do I find a good webpage to explain the details of these plastic toy air guitars to me?
posted by shipbreaker to Technology (3 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: Mine is a (GHWT) Wireless Guitar Controller for Xbox 360,
Model Number: 95457.805. As far as I have been able to tell, it will not need a dongle, just two AA batteries.
posted by shipbreaker at 11:13 PM on December 30, 2013


I don't think that there's anything particularly magic here; you have a controller that looks the same but isn't. The internal bits don't work the same way. If you want to play on your PS3, you need to buy one that's intended for the PS3.
posted by Sequence at 11:47 PM on December 30, 2013 [1 favorite]


Firstly, I have both of these - your assessment is correct, only the ps3 version requires a dongle. They almost always come with the guitar, although replacements can be had online for around $20 or so. This is mostly a function of the way sony uses bluetooth on the ps3, as well as how their licencing scheme works for third party peripherals (even sony themselves are not exempt - the singstar microphones also need a dongle, whereas the xbox lips/rockband mics do not - oddly, guitar hero 5 shipped with a wired mic, and wireless everything else....)

But importantly to your question, they are not at all cross system compatible - the over the air protocols are entirely alien to each other. As far as I know, no converters are available (except for one to use ps2 controllers on the xbox360 - i have one of these, and it's actually pretty sweet for geometry wars, but again, not your question!)
posted by jaymzjulian at 12:12 AM on December 31, 2013


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