CRKD, makers of the beloved Nitro Deck controller for Nintendo Switch, launched a new gamepad on Thursday that resembles what a modern-day NES controller might look like. The wireless CRKD Neo S has Hall effect thumbsticks, swappable stick tops and a $50 retail price. It works with Switch, PCs, mobile devices, and smart TVs.
The Bluetooth gamepad carries over much of what made the Nitro Deck feel like the Switch’s “true and final form.” It includes two thumbsticks (both Hall effect-enabled with swappable tops), a D-pad, four action buttons, triggers, mappable back buttons and adjustable vibration.
The CRKD Neo S ships in various creative designs and colorways, several of which tap into Nintendo nostalgia. For example, the gold hue looks similar to Nintendo’s Game & Watch and original Famicom with a familiar red-and-gold color scheme. Meanwhile, the clear Neo S calls back to the transparent variants of the Nintendo 64 controller and Game Boy Color portable console.
We wanted a unique, premium & collectible controller… So, we made it.
👋 Meet NEO S, The Wireless Collectible Controller.
Three variants (blossom, splatter, and junkyard) were designed by CRKD’s creative director, POPeART. His work is inspired by the traditional Japanese aesthetic wabi-sabi, which is based on the principles of imperfection, impermanence and incompletion. Or, as POPeArt puts it, “Nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.”
CRKD, which describes the controller as a “statement” and an “art piece,” hopes you’ll buy the Neo S not only for playing games but also as a collectible. In addition to the bold designs (nine will be available at launch), the company’s mobile app will track your registered products, provide digital proof of ownership and display the accessory’s “rarity rank.” As fetching as the designs may be, it remains to be seen how many gamers will go for a marketing tactic designed to get you to buy extra controllers as a hobby.
Each Neo S variant costs $50. At the time of publication, they’re slated to ship in April. The controller is available for pre-order on CRKD’s website.
You may not have a disembodied, talking head you can consult like Kratos does, but you do have us. This week, we’ll help you make the most out of your Stadia controllers, experience the features Starfield intends to implement in the future, and look back at all the PC gaming you enjoyed in 2023.
On the frontline of the console wars, it’s difficult to find perspective. Whether you’ve already chosen a side and are deep in the trenches, or you’re just trying to figure out if an Xbox Series X (see on Amazon) or PS5 (see on Amazon) makes a better Christmas gift this year, you’d be hard pressed to find a measured, bipartisan take on the internet. Instead, the seemingly endless battle between Microsoft and Sony is littered with fanboys using Starfield ass mods to “dunk” on each other and CEOs arguing over console exclusives and their perceived value.
Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger
I’m not a console warrior, nor am I a specs girl. I don’t care about framerates or ray tracing all that much; I’m not fussed about the power of processors. I grew up playing PlayStation until my high school boyfriend introduced me to Halo 2, then I bought an Xbox 360 so I could play Halo 3. I currently own a Series S and a PS5, both of which are jammed into a too-small entertainment console in my living room. But there is a distinct delineation between what kind of game I play on each device, and it’s worth discussing: I use my Series S for my competitive shooters, and my PS5 for almost everything else.
Image: 343 Industries
The Xbox comp game
I spend a lot of time playing Overwatch 2 on my Series S, but I also use its rather small storage for Warzone, Apex Legends, and Halo Infinite. These are my core four shooters that I regularly rotate between—I never play those first three on my PS5, even with the console’s extra storage space making it a lot easier to keep (and update) huge games like Call of Duty. There are a few reasons why.
As I mentioned, I got an Xbox so I could play Halo 3, which means I cut my teeth in the FPS world using the heftier Xbox controllers. As such, my hands became molded to them, my fingers grew comfortable with their curves. Even with slight variations in their design since the 360 days (like the controversial d-pad change that removed the disc in the Xbox One controller, or the extra button added with the Series X/S model), Microsoft’s controller has felt ergonomically superior for years.
The setup of the triggers and the joysticks, the way it rumbles, even the sheer heft of its plastic has always made Xbox controllers a more comfortable fit when compared to PlayStation’s DualShock and DualSense, whose symmetrical joysticks give me hand cramps. The size of the PlayStation controllers’ triggers also baffle me, and have historically made my attempts to play anything like Fortnite or Call of Duty rather miserable.
My custom Xbox controller I use every night. Photo: Microsoft / Alyssa Mercante / Kotaku
Then there’s the social aspect—I find it a lot easier to invite people to parties and chirp enemy players on Xbox’s interface. As Twitch streamer Jynxzi often shows during his play sessions, it’s easy in games like Rainbow Six Siege and Overwatch 2 to find a player in your match, navigate to their profile, and send them a friend request or, in Jynxzi’s case, an unhinged voice memo. I use this feature often to reach out to players in Overwatch comp who aren’t talking and (mostly) politely request that they swap a character or heal more when playing as Moira. I don’t find those features as simple on PlayStation.
Of course, my Xbox preference would not exist were it not for Halo 3, the sole reason why I’m a shooter player in the first place. And Halo’s exclusivity to Xbox consoles is a large reason why those same consoles remain my preference for my daily competitive game session. When I have a few bad rounds in Overwatch, I can seamlessly swap to playing some lighthearted matches in Halo Infinite. Everything is right there, at my fingertips.
But aside from Starfield, an Xbox-exclusive RPG that sucked up a good chunk of my time before proving a bore, if there’s a narrative-focused game, I’m playing it on my PS5.
Image: Insomniac Games
The PlayStation prestige
There’s two major reasons why the PS5 is my go-to console for big-budget campaigns: Sony (often exclusively) releases some of the best single player games, and the DualSense’s features make my gaming experience so much better.
The controller’s groundbreaking haptic feedback system does a lot of impressive stuff. It offers different firing modes based on how far down you pull the trigger in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and adds an extra layer to Prowler Stash puzzles in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 by requiring you to apply different pressure on each side. And it feels great when it’s not offering more depth and just, literally, vibing—like when I swing through New York City as Miles Morales or ward off scaries in Alan Wake II. Swiping on the touch pad at its center adds even more layers to a gaming experience, and there’s nothing that delights me more than when a phone call emanates from the built-in speaker. And because Sony knows how powerful its DualSense is, all of the studios working on first-party games make the most of it.
Those first-party titles are, by and large, some of the most polished modern gaming experiences you can get. Whether it’s God of War: Ragnarök or Horizon Forbidden West, Sony’s games are akin to Hollywood blockbusters or fine-tuned supercars—they’re written like ancient epics, acted by icons, and so often without the jankiness that can scar new releases. Whether or not that makes them demonstrably better than other games is not the conversation here, but it is undeniable that they feel like they’re worth $70, especially when you have all the power of the DualSense in your palms.
Of course, the PS5’s storage size is a key element—though I may not care about frames per second, I do love that I can have Skyrim, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Elden Ring, Spider-Man 2, and Alan Wake II stored on there and regularly updated without having to uninstall anything.
Without realizing it, I’ve trained myself to boot up my PS5 when I’m in the mood for a lengthy, relaxed night of gaming that involves scouring worlds for hard-to-find objects or taking on daunting bosses, or power up my Xbox Series S when I want to shoot shit and yell into my headset. The consoles have become intrinsically linked with those different play styles, to such an extreme that, when I tried to play last year’s Call of Duty Modern Warfare II on PS5, I almost immediately shut it off and swapped back to Warzone on my Series S instead.
If you have both consoles, when do you play each and why?
French gaming accessory distributor Nacon opened preorders for its Revolution 5 Pro controller for PS5, PS4, and PC. The officially licensed, polished-looking product is listed at €229, or $245, approximately half the cost of a new PlayStation 5. But if you can’t stand stick drift, maybe that’s a small price to pay.
Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger
For a while, it’s seemed like no modern controller could escape stick drift, or phantom joystick movement that affects in-game actions. Nintendo offers Switch owners free repairs for its freewheeling Joy-Cons, and Sony similarly covered drifting DualSense controllers under its warranty. But there are few permanent fixes for any controller.
Nacon, then, attempts to cut the problem out at the root. Like a growing number of other manufacturers (and Sega back in the ‘90s, with its Saturn and Dreamcast controllers), it uses contactless magnet technology, powered by a phenomenon called the Hall effect, to track the movement of its analog joysticks and triggers. This is in contrast to the degradable potentiometers and springs living in a typical Joy-Con or DualSense controller.
“This asymmetric controller offers revolutionary features to improve precision and gaming performances,” Nacon writes on its website. “Exceeding all expectations with its technology optimized for the PS5. Enjoy an enriched configuration interface, improved and ergonomic modular design, all wrapped in premium materials for unparalleled comfort.”
Aside from utilizing the magnetic Hall effect for its sticks, the Revolution 5 Pro controller also uses magnets to supply its trigger stops. The company touts its odd-looking d-pad for apparently being made in collaboration with its sponsored fighting game player, which it suggests imparts “exceptional control and precision.” As for the battery, $245 gets about 10 hours of playtime, which is comparable to a DualSense controller (that gives up around the 12-hour mark).
As with many of these high-end “pro” or “elite” controllers the Revolution 5 Pro has various modular pieces you can swap in as you’d like. It offers “four profiles saved per platform, three sets of weights, three stick sizes, three sets of stick heads, one external microphone jack and no less than 60 customisation options,” according to Nacon. So, go crazy.
The expensive controller, available in white or black, will start shipping in October.
We’ve covered the special Starfield-branded Xbox controllers before. They were one of the worst-kept secrets of 2023, alongside the Starfield-branded Xbox headset that is already joining them on store shelves. What I did not know until today was how damn cool the controller’s triggers are.
Thank You, PS Plus, For Making My Backlog Even Bigger
I mean, I like the controller design itself. I’m not exactly hyped for Starfield, I can take it or leave it, but the beauty of this pad in particular is that it doesn’t really look like a branded controller at all. It just looks like an Xbox controller with a really cool late-70s/early-80s sci-fi theme, like it was something out of The Last Starfighter, and so even if you had no idea what Starfield was, or did and did not care for it, you could still be into this controller.
Anyway! That aesthetic discourse off my chest, I want to talk about the triggers. From leaked product shots we already knew the triggers had a transparent housing, but it was one thing seeing them just sitting around. It’s another seeing them moving, because as long as we have had vibrating controllers—and it’s been decades now—I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the mechanics of them actually vibrating before while you’ve got the finished product in your hand:
That’s neat! Not surprising, we all knew roughly how they worked, but it’s still cool seeing it in action like that. Cool and worrying, because seeing how fast and hard those little guys have to work to keep rumbling I have no idea how controllers last as long as they do. Provided, uh, they actually last as long we want them to.
The Xbox Series X/S controller is $80 while the gaming headset is $125.
When it’s not stealing or plagiarizing, generative AI is improving quickly. Images that used to look uncanny now appear more natural and humanly imperfect. But it still struggles with plenty of things. Apparently video game controllers are one of them. Someone asked Midjourney for simple pictures of a person having fun playing video games, and got back some beautiful abominations.
This New Series Completes Studio MAPPA’s Dark Trilogy
A generative AI enthusiast asked the Midjourney community for help this week when a simple prompt returned some nightmares. “Mj has a real tough time with ‘playing video games’ apparently,” they posted on the project’s subreddit. “Any ideas how I could improve this? Prompt: female influencer relaxing playing PlayStation 5 having a blast”
While Midjourney managed to render a human with the right number of fingers, the controllers in her hands and how she was holding them looked like something out of a Cronenberg movie. The gamepads are overflowing with random buttons, triggers, and sticks, and not in a cool way. Microsoft’s adaptiver controller looks sleek. Midjourney’s version hurts just looking at it.
As many commenters suggested, one reason could be the overly broad prompt. While “playing” is intuitive to the average person, it’s vague when compared to what a search for it might reveal. The bigger culprit, though, is probably that there just aren’t many images of the backs of controllers compared to all the front-facing promotional shots companies release to sell them.
In that regard, the failed experiment potentially reinforces one of generative AI’s biggest weaknesses: It’s great at giving you variations on what already exists, but struggles to bridge the gaps in what’s missing. Or it borrows from existing sources in the wrong ways. Some of you might remember the infamous grip meme, and it certainly looks like that’s what Midjourney is recreating in the fourth image. Turns out the fake AI gamer girl is actually an extremely hardcore Armored Core fan.
As we discussed earlier this week, the Steam Deck has had one hell of a launch year. It should be no surprise, then, that Valve has its eye on the future of its new handheld, which it has officially categorized as a “multi-generational product.” The company has now revealed a bit of what it’s hoping to improve and where it’s looking to expand in the hardware game.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Verge, Steam Deck designers Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais talked about ambitions and concrete goals for the Steam Deck. After nearly a year out in the wild, the Deck has certainly impressed with its performance and wide selection of games. However, areas for improvement are clear: The screen is serviceable, but it’s far from that of, say, the new Nintendo Switch OLED Model. And the battery not only tends to drain quickly but, as iFixit observed in its review, it’s one of the least fixable things in an otherwise repair-friendly device. We know now that these last two points are top of mind for Valve.
Though the company didn’t reveal much of its plans for the screen’s improvement, it did share some insight into the battery, its replaceability, and how future iterations of the product are addressing areas of concern.
With a battery that’s quick to lose its juice, and the nature of such a power source being to degrade over time, poor replaceability is a disappointment. Griffais told The Verge that due to the possibility of battery expansion, “you can’t really have the battery-shaped hole [inside the Deck] be exactly the same size as the battery” and that all of the glue that holds it in place is to keep it from moving around too much.
Concern for a rattley battery was apparently an issue in development. “In some of our early prototypes,” Griffais said, “we had [the battery shifting around] and I’ll tell you, it doesn’t feel good at all when you’re just moving around and trying to use your Deck.” Yang comically added, “You don’t want a Steam Deck maraca, and you don’t want a battery possibly touching other important components and jostling them around.”
So the decision to secure the battery in place so rigidly was necessary to get the Deck in a playable, shippable, and reliably safe state. Yang revealed that Valve has “rolled in a change to the geometry of the [glue that holds the battery]” which should allow for easier removal and repairs down the line.
Valve also revealed, perhaps to the surprise and joy of a select few, that a new Steam Controller is also something the company is aspiring to make happen. The original Steam Controller was a bit of an odd bird, but its high level of customization certainly caught the attention of a dedicated, if small, fan base. Us select few who fell in love with it already knew it, but the Steam Deck has continued to demonstrate the need for more malleable and dynamic gamepads for PC gaming.
But if you’re ready to throw money at the screen for a follow-up to Valve’s owl-shaped controller, I’m sorry to say that it might take a while. “Right now, we’re focusing on the Deck,” Yang said. “[A controller is] definitely something where we’d be excited to work with a third-party or explore ourselves.”
