Remember in the 1990s and early 2000s when video game accessories and consoles came in transparent plastic shells? That stuff was so rad. And now, Xbox’s newest controller—launching in August—is bringing back this classic transparent look and I’m very excited.
On July 31, Xbox announced a brand-new gamepad design via its official blog: the Sky Cipher Special Edition controller. Sky Cipher, which sounds like the name of some military project you need to destroy in a late-game Call of Duty mission, is a transparent blue Xbox controller with all the features you’d expect from Microsoft’s standard controllers. You get a share button, clicky sticks, nice grips on the controller handles, Bluetooth support, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a USB-C charging port. But all of this is contained in a blue-tinted retro-transparent plastic shell, letting you see all the innards of your controller while you hold it.
The Sky Cipher goes on sale on August 13 for $70 and will work with your Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PC, and some phones.
Microsoft says you’ll be able to “reveal the mysteries within” the controller, which I guess means you can now see all the metal bits and servos inside the controller that make it work. (I guess nobody told the copywriter that this isn’t the first controller from the company to feature some transparent plastic, so I’m pretty sure those mysteries have been solved already.)
With this new Sky Cipher controller, Xbox is also introducing a new, more eco-friendly packaging design for its gamepads. According to Xbox this is part of its continuing commitment to reduce its carbon footprint. As such, the Sky Cipher’s packaging features no single-use plastics and no paper user guide. Instead, you’ll need to scan a QR code to see how to use the new controller. Microsoft also says that the controller’s packaging is now 22 percent smaller and 21 percent lighter than before.
This all sounds good to me! My current Xbox controller has started to succumb to thumbstick drift, as is often the case with video game controllers. So I might snag this Sky Cipher gamepad when it launches next month.
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