Xbox Adaptive Controller is now out–and we go hand, foot, fingers, and elbows-on
Xbox Adaptive Controller is now out—and we go hand, foot, fingers, and elbows-on

            
  
  
  
    

    

    
      Plug-and-play for a whole new audience of gamer (within Xbox, Windows ecosystems).
    

    

    
            
              
            
    
    
      The brand-new Xbox Adaptive Controller, posing on top of its black-on-white gaming sibling, the Xbox One S console.

              
          Credit:

          
          Sam Machkovech

                  
          
  
          

    
    
    
      The brand-new Xbox Adaptive Controller, posing on top of its black-on-white gaming sibling, the Xbox One S console.

              
          Credit:

          
          Sam Machkovech

                  
          
  
  



  

  
      
    
    
                      
                      
          
Microsoft's newest game accessory, the Xbox Adaptive Controller, probably isn't for you. That's just an odds game, when counting the percentage of people who fall into the "limited mobility" camp that this strange, unique controller is aimed at.
But that's the incredible thing about the XAC: that it's targeting a particularly fractured audience. Limited mobility is a giant, vague category, after all, with so many physical ailments to account for (let alone psychological ones). And previous answers in the gaming sphere have typically been specialized, one-of-a-kind controllers for single hands, feet, heads, and more.
XAC wins out in an odd way: by leaving some major work in users' hands. This $99 lap-sized device is truly incomplete on its own, as it's designed from the ground up to require add-on joysticks, buttons, and more. As a result, there's no way to fully review the possibilities Microsoft's XAC opens up for disabled gamers. Still, we've put a retail unit through its paces to see what kind of accessibility canvas this revolutionary "controller" opens up—and exactly how it works—to help limited-mobility gamers and their caretakers decide if its functionality, ease-of-use, and practical cost is right for them.
Cables, ports, boxes, and feet
On Tuesday, Microsoft surprise-announced that the XAC is now for sale. $99, via either the Microsoft Store or GameStop, will net you the base kit, which we received days before its retail debut.

    

    The XAC, like the Xbox One S before it, sports a black-on-white color motif at launch. This color is a "bone" white, so the tone pops to some extent in a well-lit room but otherwise absorbs other nearby colors; it'll look pale-yellow in a dim, naturally lit room, for example.
                
  

The base kit, seen above, includes one lap-sized, button-covered slab and a single, nine-foot USB Type-A to Type-C cable.
To start playing, no batteries are necessary; the XAC comes pre-charged to some extent. If you'd rather use the XAC wirelessly, any Xbox One console can be synced using the same sync-button protocol found on standard XB1 gamepads. This method also lets you wirelessly pair with Windows PCs, so long as they support Bluetooth 4.0 or have an Xbox Wireless Adapter dongle. Otherwise, the 9-foot USB-C cable doubles as a wired connector and a charging option.

          
                      
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          
The 1.2lb (550g) device measures 5.0 × 11.5 inches (13.0cm × 29.5cm), and its height maxes out at 0.87 inches before shrinking slightly via a 5-degree slope. This slope is a nice touch for anyone who wants to rest palms or hands either on the controller itself or at the base of a supporting table.

    

    Xbox Adaptive Controller's shipping box. We got to preview one of these accessibility-minded boxes a few months ago; how does the retail one compare?
                
  

In terms of basic design, function, and feel, nothing appears to have changed since our last hands-on. To review: the two giant buttons, which default to A and B on an Xbox gamepad, have a 4-inch diameter and withstand quite the pounding. Foot stomps and heavy elbow-blasts work as well as basic palm presses, thanks to loud and responsive click-push action. The XAC wants to make clear to users, through touch and sound alike, that they've successfully pressed or let up on a button. (These are simple on-off buttons, as opposed to pressure- or location-sensitive touchpads.)
Anybody who has paid no less than $150 for a good "fighting stick" controller will appreciate how these buttons offer a squish-then-resistance feel. And in a clever move, Microsoft carved the interior of these two buttons in such a way that each makes a slightly different noise when pressed down. It's not enough that I could pick the sounds out if you blindfolded me and flipped the controller randomly, but it's a cute touch all the same.
The XAC's other five buttons are far less satisfying, though that's perhaps by design. These are all basic menu-manipulation buttons: the "view" and "menu" buttons (what normal people call "select" and "start"), the big "Xbox button," an oversized D-pad, and a button-preset picker. These are all at least spaced apart well enough to accommodate imprecise taps, but they're recessed enough to feel designed less for accessibility and more for durability. I would have liked more exposed and squishier buttons, particularly for the D-pad, but those kinds of constructions may have proven too sensitive for what kind of wear and tear Microsoft has built for here.

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          

    

    Ports, ports, ports, ports, ports. 19 of them in the 3.5mm camp.
                    
                      Sam Machkovech
                  
          
  

At this point, you may be confused. A video game controller with only two gameplay buttons? How does that work? Look above, and you'll see the XAC difference: an array of 19 3.5mm jacks on its back. As we learned from Microsoft in May, the company wanted to tap into an existing accessibility-controller ecosystem, defined largely by devices that use the 3.5mm protocol to send simple on-or-off pulses to an electronic hub. This protocol came to prominence thanks to smaller companies and DIY tinkerers being the primary helpers in the limited-mobility niche.
In XAC's case, that means you can plug a huge variety of switches into ports, and each one is dedicated to a particular Xbox controller button. A, B, X, Y, bumpers, triggers, directional taps: they're all exposed.
Microsoft sent us two 3.5mm devices to test: a hardy foot pedal, made by StealthSwitch, and a fingertip-sized button. Setting these up was as easy as looking at the back of the XAC, finding the port for the button we wanted to use, and plugging it in. Boom: our foot pedal could become the "right trigger," and our finger switch could become a "Y" button.
Of course, if plugging and unplugging 3.5mm jacks is "easy" to do with your hands, the XAC might be moot. How easy are these to insert and swap, particularly for users with hand and finger issues? In good news, Microsoft has implemented one design tweak to help limited-mobility users: a set of small, physical grooves on the top of the device. If you're using the XAC with the ports facing away from you (the default position), you can press a 3.5mm jack on the top and get it to match an icon for the button assignment of your choosing, and this makes it easier to find the right jack when looking at its backside isn't possible.

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          
But the XAC opts for a tight-fitting series of 3.5mm jacks, perhaps to guarantee that cables don't dislodge during frantic gameplay. As a result, these require far more exertion to insert and remove than an average smartphone's jack. You'll need to have force, leverage, or both to swap jacks on the fly.

Accessory to a good time
Before testing these devices on Windows and Xbox One, we did a due-diligence check and confirmed the bad news for anybody hoping for stealthy XAC support on other popular consoles. As of press time, your PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch will not play nice with the XAC. (In PS4's case, it will identify the "Xbox Adaptive Controller" in Bluetooth menus but doesn't recognize its button taps.)
But platforms like Mac, Linux, and older versions of Windows will recognize the XAC much like they do an XB1 gamepad. In those cases, install a third-party Xbox One controller driver to expose the XAC.

    

    The welcome image you'll see when connecting the XAC to an Xbox One. The same image appears on Windows 10, but you have to load the Xbox Accessories app to see it there.
                
  

Plugging this device into an Xbox One or Windows 10 system is, unsurprisingly, a little more elegant.
In both cases, the native Xbox Accessories app exposes a flashy series of introduction images that auto-appear on recently patched Xbox One consoles upon connecting the controller. This wasn't so automatic on Windows 10. We had to manually hunt for the Xbox Accessories app on Windows 10, but as soon as we loaded the app with the XAC connected, it immediately gave us an XAC intro (and the controller was wholly functional before that intro popped up).
From there, the Xbox Accessories app lets you build and save custom button profiles, which are arguably most useful when you don't want to reattach devices to different 3.5mm ports between different games or genres. You also get "default" as a fourth button-assignment option, and you can toggle between all of these with a dedicated button on top of the XAC.

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          
If you look in the above gallery, you'll notice "X1 and X2" as options. We were told these 3.5mm ports would eventually accept higher-level controllers via the 3.5mm standard, perhaps with analog joystick sensitivity. But we haven't seen any such accessories announced. Instead, we figured out that those buttons currently correspond to extra buttons in a plug-in controller, via the two USB ports (one on each side). Here's one plug-in example:


This one-handed Wii "nunchuk"-like device, made by PDP, launched alongside the XAC this week for only $20, and its two buttons are, by default, assigned to the XAC's wildcard "X1" and "X2" functions. (This fake nunchuk is perfectly serviceable, although it feels cheap and has a flimsier, last-gen feel to its joystick's resistance.)
I point the buttons out because the XAC's USB ports are meant for joystick controllers, ranging from standard gamepads to high-octane, button-loaded flight sticks. So if you already own the kind of oversized joystick that caters to limited-mobility gamers, it should work, and you can pick whether you want it to be assigned to an Xbox gamepad's left or right joystick. I didn't have other flight sticks to test, however, so I can't guarantee that your favorite joystick's buttons will all be recognized by (and mappable within) the Xbox Accessories app.
What does $100 (or $160) get you?
The process of getting a game going will depend on two major factors: which accessories you attach to this device, and which game you're about to play.
Every accessory that came in our reviewer's kit—the foot pedal, the finger switch, and the PDP nunchuk—currently retails for $20. That's a $160 (before tax) tally to get a gamer with one good hand (able to adequately move thumb and index fingers) and roughly two other good appendages into a relatively simple session. You could have a foot assigned to the pedal and an arm or elbow rocking back and forth on the XAC, or you could use one or two feet to manage the XAC and pedal buttons and then apply slight head movement to tap the finger-sized clicker.

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    
          
          
Within those constraints, you're limited to five buttons and one joystick (or potentially more buttons, if you play around with the customization app and use a "shift" key option, as shown in an earlier gallery). That's enough to play 3D games with no camera-stick requirements (namely, driving games), minimal-button platformers, and four-button fighting games. Not bad, but not PUBG. (Or Overwatch, or Fortnite, or many other popular games that a limited gamer would rather play instead of simplified, "accessible" fare.)
If you're an Xbox owner, at least, you likely already have a few more buttons and joysticks to work with, thanks to the default Xbox One gamepad. You can use Xbox's default "co-pilot" mode, which is highlighted in the Xbox Accessories app on both Xbox One and Windows 10, to reassign and use gamepad functions alongside the XAC. Depending on your mobility issue, that could expose just enough button and/or joystick use to get you over the edge without breaking the bank.

    
    
      Ars' first look at the Xbox Adaptive Controller, May 2018.

          
  

More specialized uses, meanwhile, will still require some pricier, focused hardware to get affected players into the action. Blowing and biting tubes, mounted buttons that could go anywhere from your head to your feet and knees, head-driven joysticks, wobble switches—when certain body parts aren't available for one reason or another, you might have to shell out for a more fine-tuned solution.
That's been the case for some interested gamers for a while now. What XAC does is bring down the barrier to entry by way of three pretty open protocols: Bluetooth and USB for hooking the XAC to computers and Xbox One, and 3.5mm jacks for specialized controllers. $99 is already a steal for a Windows- and Xbox-compatible hub with 19 ports, multiple USB jacks, a built-in battery, and solid construction. The two really nice, really large buttons, presented on a slope that supports one foot or one fingerless hand, are icing on top of that accessible-gaming cake.

          
                  
                    
        
          
    
    

        
        
          
          
Other consoles won't play nice with this device, but anything that recognizes Xbox One controllers will work. That might just boil down to a third-party driver install, but that's a pretty cool amount of computer compatibility to look forward to. If you want to dream bigger, find other third-party software that can convert Xbox One button presses to keyboard and mouse commands. If a user or their caretaker wants to jump through that hoop, they may find a very cheap limited-mobility computer hub within their grasp.
A note for interested users (and caretakers)
Of course, "caretaker" is no small thing to point out here. The XAC will likely be handled and set up by someone with decent mobility but perhaps not much computer or gaming savvy. This device in some ways greatly simplifies the process by using the Xbox One's controller protocol, which a lot of popular games on both Xbox and Windows play nicely with. From there, find out what buttons are important in a given game; get into some trial-and-error tests of what to plug where; and get a user into a game pretty quickly.
On the other hand, XAC doesn't roll out a magic carpet with perfect caretaker instructions for every gaming scenario. Accessories will likely have to be swapped around for the sake of different button standards, depending on game and/or genre, or at least programmed through the Xbox Accessories app, and games' details and instructions will have to be Googled. (Unless you have a rare game with a printed instruction manual, at any rate.)
It's not a dealbreaker by any stretch, and XAC still removes quite a few steps compared to smaller-fry devices that require complicated physical and software installations. But again, this $99 device is only the beginning of the XAC process. Microsoft isn't releasing other limited-mobility add-ons at this time, so you're still wading into a sea of unknown vendors (and their varying reputations, warranties, and prices) to get the most out of this controller. You have homework to do to figure out whether a range of pricey accessories may be the right call for either a therapeutic center or a home's gaming room, and you likely can't go into a big-box retailer and test so many add-ons before diving in.
But if you do, this new controller is a darn good starting point. The XAC focuses on getting a few things right: accepting a ton of third-party inputs, funneling them into an easy-to-read computer and Xbox interface, and delivering a solid, useful centerpiece to your new hardware equation—one that assumes you'll at least need one or two massive buttons. $99 is awesome for this combination of quality, flexibility, and performance.


          
                  

                  
          


  
    Listing image:
    Sam Machkovech
  




  


  
    
    
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