From November 12th, Microsoft promises to block third party accessories that are not authorized by the company from being used on the Xbox, on an unprecedented anti-competitive move. This restriction includes game controllers.

Some current unauthorized accessory users have been receiving the following warning:

A connected accessory is not authorized. Using unauthorized accessories compromises your gaming experience. For this reason, the unauthorized accessory will be blocked from use on 11/12/2023.

For help returning it, check with the store it came from or contact the manufacturer. To see authorized accessories, go to www.xbox.com/accessories. (0x82d60002).

Brook Gaming, a manufacturer of third party controller adapters and fight sticks, put out an official statement regarding the upcoming change, and are looking for solutions to keep their products working on Xbox consoles.

A list of authorized accessories can be found on the official Xbox accessory page--most of which are specifically wired gamepads. Going forward, brands will need to have a specific chip and authorization from Microsoft itself to function as an official wireless accessory on Xbox systems.

Source

 

[frozencat]

Why? PS5 does this from the start. This is only worse on Xbox now because people have bought non-authorized controllers that will stop working on the console. It'll make people spend more money than they already have and will generate a lot of e-waste.

wait i didnt know that...

 

[Dungeonseeker]

These companies start to nickel and dime people once their bottom line is compromised, I mean check out shitty google on youtube and how they are threatening users who enable ad-blockers on their platform.

About that... anyone else noticed its stopped happening over the last few days?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I'm surprised they weren't doing this already, considering they were doing this all the way back on the 360.
Turning it on partway through a console generation is just a dick move though, and a huge fuck you to all the people that bought 3rd party controllers expecting them to continue working.
The end user doesn't know the difference between "authorized" and "unauthorized" controllers. All they know is that a software update broke their 3rd party controller and stopped it from working. It's not like 3rd party manufacturers label the box with "authorized" and "unauthorized". Why are you punishing the end user who had no idea what they were being sold was not a "genuine" licensed product? M$ are just being greedy cunts at the cost of the consumer.

 

[YoureALoser]

"unauthorized accessories compromises your gaming experience"

Not being able to use my controller compromises my gaming experience exponentially more

I don't know why anyone still buys gaming consoles in this day and age - buy a PC and stop supporting these jokers

PC is trash for competitive gaming, that's why. Xbox is also trash for competitive gaming because of mandatory cross play (lack of player base) with PC. PC has no standard as far as frame rate, resolution, input device etc. Which means pay more for that "competitive edge". PC has aim bots, mods etc. that no cheat engine will ever be able to detect. PC is easier to harass people on (see Red Dead Redemption 2 multiplayer on PC). PC is really only good for single player/co-op games.

 

[LightyKD]

"unauthorized accessories compromises your gaming experience"

Not being able to use my controller compromises my gaming experience exponentially more

I don't know why anyone still buys gaming consoles in this day and age - buy a PC and stop supporting these jokers

Exactly! this is just another reason to strictly go PC. For modern gaming, I juggle between Switch and Steam Deck running Windows. Best gaming experience ever! When a person buys a piece of hardware, they should be able to use it how they see fit.

 

[Subtle Demise]

What? Microsoft pulling another anticompetitive stunt out of their collective asses? Must be a regular Monday.

I'm surprised they didn't just monetize it. Sorry you'll now need an active gamepass gold subscription in order to use third-party accessories.

Glad I still haven't bought any of the current gen consoles.

I was about to bring up all the anti-consumer shit Sony and Nintendo do, but I see from your last sentence that you're already well aware.

"unauthorized accessories compromises your gaming experience"

Not being able to use my controller compromises my gaming experience exponentially more

I don't know why anyone still buys gaming consoles in this day and age - buy a PC and stop supporting these jokers

Yeah, proprietary game consoles are obsolete and anti-consumer. Personal computers were like that for a long time too, and eventually they became the mostly standardized platform we see today. Hopefully that's the future of game consoles too

 

[Spider_Man]

why wouldn't they, HELLO WORLD this is the very same company that wanted to BLOCK YOU from playing PRE OWNED GAMES, then buys out studios to push its PLAN B - DIGITAL ONLY as they will try announce that as the most wanted system, now they force third party controllers useless - who else here is getting it.

Microsoft never lead in gaming because they are not a gaming company, their only interest is how it can maximise profits and screws you over.

Stopped having any interest in the $hitBox since day one of its 1x system arriving and took months to get them to issue a repair label, then didn't repair anything and sent it back damaged and disposed of my original packaging, then its outsourced customer service kept taking the piss, I now know it as stalling until its warranty passes then had the balls to claim if I reported it within its warranty it would have been replaced.

Then no further replies when I'd send every single email over to them.

 

[James_]

I'm pretty sure backlash from controller makers will probably stop this change from happening or at least will make Microsoft find a way to allow some unauthorized accessories to get authorized before the change happens.

I know 8BitDo will probably be annoyed, they have partnered with Microsoft several times in the past to make XBOX controllers, but most of their older controllers likely aren't XBOX authorized.

They created DRM for controllers

Controllers

Microsoft created DRM for fucking MP3 files at one point (or at least I'm sure they did), so it's not really a surprise to me that they're doing a similar thing for controllers now.

First they cancel E3

...apparently Microsoft is the sole reason why E3 is dead now? And not the literal pandemic that started happening 3 years ago and every game company proceeding to make their own form of presentation?

 

[Marc_LFD]

why wouldn't they, HELLO WORLD this is the very same company that wanted to BLOCK YOU from playing PRE OWNED GAMES, then buys out studios to push its PLAN B - DIGITAL ONLY as they will try announce that as the most wanted system, now they force third party controllers useless - who else here is getting it.

Microsoft never lead in gaming because they are not a gaming company, their only interest is how it can maximise profits and screws you over.

Stopped having any interest in the $hitBox since day one of its 1x system arriving and took months to get them to issue a repair label, then didn't repair anything and sent it back damaged and disposed of my original packaging, then its outsourced customer service kept taking the piss, I now know it as stalling until its warranty passes then had the balls to claim if I reported it within its warranty it would have been replaced.

Then no further replies when I'd send every single email over to them.

They went too soon into it just like Sony tried to go all-digital with the PSP Go, but now customers are more eager to do so. Heck, Sony has released a PS5 Digital model so there is a market, sadly.

 

[17hitcombooo]

come on microsoft i bought your hardware let me play whatever the fuck i want with it. just let me control starfield with a logitech usb steering wheel!!!!!

 

[Anxiety_timmy]

Microsoft is becoming more and more like apple aren't they

 

[MRJPGames]

Whilst it wasn't for controllers, MS have blocked certain unlicensed accessories in the past:
https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/xbox-360-update-blocks-unauthorized-memory-units-19-10-2009/

This combined with MS reportedly questioning the future of Xbox, I'm not really surprised TBH.



I suspect it's more about revenue, considering the Xbox supports things like KB/M.

Personally, I think doing something like this mid-gen is a stupid BS move because you're going to have people who already have the hardware and it will just annoy people.

If anyone is going to pull a move like this, it's better to do it at the start of a gen where you have a bit of a clean slate and the consumer/manufacturers are aware from release that you have to buy licensed hardware.

Except from the look of things, it's only blocking those controllers when in online play. Aka it is to prevent cheating. Which is happening at least on PC more and more through external hardware to avoid detection.

 

[trepp0]

So glad i only use pc, and can use whatever controller i want! I cry for you, my console Brethren.

 

[tech3475]

Except from the look of things, it's only blocking those controllers when in online play. Aka it is to prevent cheating. Which is happening at least on PC more and more through external hardware to avoid detection.

The support page doesn't say anything about online only, just a 2 week grace period:
https://support.xbox.com/en-GB/help/errors/error-code-0x82d60002

 

[AncientBoi]

Even though I don't own an Xbox, I noticed on this post, that mostly everybody is talking about "Controllers" Yet it says "And Accessories" also. Thus other parts will be affected.

 

[Marc_LFD]

come on microsoft i bought your hardware let me play whatever the fuck i want with it. just let me control starfield with a logitech usb steering wheel!!!!!

Seems you're unaware...

Companies these days want your money, but make sure you have little ownership as possible. Digital purchases? Long-term rentals.

It's always been like this though in recent times it's become more clear what they favor.

 

[The Catboy]

I don’t normally side with M$, but even the cheapest accessories seem to be authorized by them. It seems like you really have to go out of your way to get unauthorized accessories. Maybe this is just because of where I live or maybe because I avoid sites known for selling counterfeit products, like Temu and aliexpress
I want to note that on principle, I disagree with Microsoft doing this. But at the same time, the accessibility and easy of finding authorized 3rd party products makes it hard to fully condemn this decision.

 

[Marc_LFD]

I don’t normally side with M$, but even the cheapest accessories seem to be authorized by them. It seems like you really have to go out of your way to get unauthorized accessories. Maybe this is just because of where I live or maybe because I avoid sites known for selling counterfeit products, like Temu and aliexpress
I want to note that on principle, I disagree with Microsoft doing this. But at the same time, the accessibility and easy of finding authorized 3rd party products makes it hard to fully condemn this decision.

Instead of buying from crap brands like PDP or PowerA, I'd rather buy a controller from AliExpress which I know it's more reliable and better in terms of quality.

8Bitdo and Hori are pretty good.

 

[The Catboy]

Instead of buying from crap brands like PDP or PowerA, I'd rather buy a controller from AliExpress which I know it's more reliable and better in terms of quality.

8Bitdo and Hori are pretty good.

I've had zero good experiences with products bought on AliExpress. Maybe it's just my bad luck or maybe the people who bought me the products didn't do enough research, regardless, I avoid them as much as I avoid PDP or PowerA

 

[Sono]

And for that matter also Nintendo for not waking up on third party controller.

Don't get me wrong, Nintendo does try their best to lock down the Switch, which is really stingy of them, but pretty sure that it not waking up is the third party controller's fault, as it does wakeup via BLE instead of regular Bluetooth. Or at least, as far as I remember from my experiments. Switchbrew doesn't seem to mention how this works.