Why aren't there any 3rd party wireless controllers for current game consoles?

January 6, 2009 1:32 AM

Why aren't there any 3rd party wireless controllers for current game consoles?

As far as I can tell, none of the current consoles have 3rd party wireless controllers. This breaks a long tradition of a plethora of sometimes crappy but still compatible controllers and accessories. What might explain the situation?

posted by pwnguin to technology (13 answers total)

For the Wii I've seen 3rd party wireless nunchuks, keyboards, microphones, gamecube control pads, sensor bars and guitars. No actual remotes though.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 2:17 AM on January 6, 2009

Oh, here's one. That just leaves the PS3 and the 360 for you...
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 3:44 AM on January 6, 2009

PS3, 360 and Wii. And that's not even getting into things like driving wheels or other types of input devices.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 4:42 AM on January 6, 2009

Civil_Disobedient, the 360 controllers you linked to weren't wireless, and the Wii ones didn't include an actual controller, just other accessories.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 4:48 AM on January 6, 2009

PS3 uses bluetooth, so it shouldn't be problem.

Wii might have something available, but could be patent or proprietary tech.

360 wireless is something proprietary. You want to make 3rd party controllers, you need to pay a licensing fee. So there's not that many available.
posted by Lord_Pall at 5:47 AM on January 6, 2009

My google-fu is failing me today, but I'm pretty sure the reasons for no 3rd party wireless controllers on the 360 is:
1) You can't make any sort of controllers for the 360 without buying a signed chip from Microsoft (this is why things like the xfps360 require a real controller plugged in when first turned on - they pass the authentication messages through to it).
2) Microsoft won't sell anyone the chips needed to do wireless controllers.

On the PS3 there are plenty of 3rd party controllers, they are just very similar to the existing ones e.g. Logitech do wireless controllers and guitars.

There's nothing stopping people making 3rd party wiimotes as far as I know. These guys seem to be doing it (or trying to). The main problem is you have to keep the shape the same if you want to fit in all the hideous plastic add ons which would probably result in nintendo thawing one of their lawyers.
posted by samj at 5:57 AM on January 6, 2009

the 360 controllers you linked to weren't wireless, and the Wii ones didn't include an actual controller, just other accessories.

Sorry about that, I wasn't looking carefully enough.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:45 AM on January 6, 2009

Beware the Logitech cordless PS3 controller. It's not Bluetooth, it has a dongle you plug into a USB port on the console. There are no sixaxis controls, and some games(Little Big Planet, I'm looking at you) won't even recognize it as a controller.
posted by owtytrof at 7:04 AM on January 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Interesting. I didn't know about the snakebyte controller. It doesn't appear to be for sale in the US.

For purposes of this askMe, wireless with a dongle doesn't count. This still leaves the 360 and maybe the PS3?
posted by pwnguin at 10:00 AM on January 6, 2009

The Snakebyte controller may not be for sale in the US because Nintendo may have patents that keep third party Wiimotes out of the market.
posted by zsazsa at 10:14 AM on January 6, 2009

An interesting theory, but wouldn't they have patents in Europe too?
posted by pwnguin at 12:09 PM on January 6, 2009

The only thing that I can think of is that software patents are not allowed in Europe. That may cover some of the processing routines that take place within the Wiimote.
posted by zsazsa at 1:22 PM on January 6, 2009

Thanks for the help; I guess patents are preventing compatible wireless.
posted by pwnguin at 3:38 PM on January 7, 2009