Xbox’s new policy — say goodbye to unofficial accessories from November thanks to error ‘0x82d60002’::Got error 0x82d60002 on your Xbox accessory? There’s no fix, Xbox is going to block the use of detected unauthorized accessories with its consoles from November 12, 2023.
Going to have a controversial opinion here, but as someone who primarily plays competitive FPS games this is a huge win. Strike Packs have been dominating console lobbies for years now. Controllers that do scripting won’t work anymore, and that’s a massive W.
It’s not universally good, and they’ll need to expand the authorization program, but imo it’s well worth it to ban the cheaters using 3rd party controllers.
Edit: Downvote as much as you want. I’m fed up dealing with console players cheating with controllers they can buy from walmart. This is a huge positive for anyone who wants people to stop cheating.
I abandoned Xbox back when they announced Xbox One and said it required a Kinect and would be always online for DRM purposes. The backlash was severe enough that I remember their stock price taking a hit and that Major Tom dude having to come out and backtrack.
I knew then and there that they’d always try to bring this DRM/hyper controlling nonsense back. Just didn’t think it’d take them so long.
I’ve never owned any Xbox because even Windows is too hyper-controlling for me.
(I game on Linux, of course.)
That’s when I stopped. I think the only things I missed were Halo 5 and 6, and I understand I missed very little.
I’m using game pass on PC now, and when they start fucking around with that, I’ll turn them back off.
I jumped over to Playstation and I can’t say I’m having a bad time. Some great exclusives have come out. Horizon Zero Dawn, Spider-Man 1 (I’m too poor for Spider-Man 2 so have no opinions), Bloodborne, God of War… Been a nice time and same here on Halo being the only thing I missed.
Well that and the controller.
I was going to get Xbox (whatever the random name for this next gen is) for Christmas and have been with Microsoft since the 360, but now I’m moving back to the PlayStation 5. Granted, I’m barely a gamer and use it more as a media center than a game console, but even I’m getting tired of Microsoft. I’ve been off of their operating system since college so gaming is the last Microsoft product I had.
Historically, 3rd party accessories on all platforms have been garbage. Glad to see them cracking down. There are rare exceptions like this Atari 2600 joystick:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAC-2
I have a pair that must be almost 40 years old now, still work!
I mean, yeah, it’s true historically that first party has been generally better in quality. Going all the way back. But that does not mean it’s cool to block third party accessories.
They aren’t blocking 3rd party accessories. They’e blocking UNLICENSED 3rd party accessories. Different beast.
Basically just means anything that is even mildly competitive in terms of price. Any licensed third party gear is the exact same price as the official accessories.
I’m not sure why you are defending moves clearly meant to fuck the consumer.
Call me old-fashioned, but I think the free market offers an adequate solution for this—customers can tell for themselves which third-party accessories are bad and not buy them. Microsoft shouldn’t purposefully render them unusable. If you want guaranteed support, you’re always free to choose an official product.
Except the controllers who are doing external scripting are the best selling 3rd party controllers. So the free market has been pretty clear in that they don’t care if it’s a good product, they only care if it gives them an unfair advantage.
Letting the free market continue to regulate this means no change from the horrific state of controller based cheating that exists right now.
If PC players and PC games can handle cheating without needing to resort to banning third-party controllers, I see no reason that Microsoft magically needs to do so.
“Xbox’s policy”, we aren’t talking about PC. But yeah, once you get away from the name brands, a large portion of PC controllers are garbage as well.
Just because you don’t like them doesn’t mean other people don’t.
As a kid I had no hope of affording the official PlayStation racing wheel, but I could afford the MadCatz one. When I wanted a 2nd guitar controller to play with friends on the PS2, NYKO offered a wireless one that was much better than the official ones. My first wireless controller, before the WaveBird, was a MadCatz PS2 controller that was fantastic.
I spent a good chunk of this weekend researching 3rd party JoyCons because the ones from Nintendo are basically cheap novelty toys that sell for $80.
8BitDo have been making quality controllers for several years now, and they have a whole section of their website dedicated to Xbox stuff. They appear to be licensed, so they will probably still be good?
Especially with how expensive 1st party controllers are, it can make a ton of sense to get cheap 3rd party ones. Especially if you aren’t into hardcore or competitive games.
Haha thanks that’s actually what I went with.
I went with the Wizard because I always thought the GameCube controller was fine. Not my favorite, not terrible. But I’m at least familiar with it. I saw some reviews mention that the QA and build quality might be a problem, and if that’s the case my next option is probably to try the Hyperion Pro.
Honestly I wish I could rip the controls off the Steam Deck or rip a DualSense in half.
There’s still no official word or reports yet on whether XIM or Cronus controller-spoofing mouse and keyboard adapters will be banned as a result of these policy changes, but manufacturers like Brook Gaming who build unlicensed, but fair adapters for fighting game sticks seem to be caught in the dragnet. We’ll be sure to update you on further changes.
I think XIM and Cronus are the reason they’re doing this, especially since the main games on Xbox are shooters.
Cronus allows you to run scripts which give you an unfair competitive advantage, from using exploits and humanly impossible controller inputs to fire weapons ultra fast, to removing weapon recoil, to going auto-prone when you fire your weapon, to quickscoping, to other things.
XIM on the other hand lets you plug in a mouse and keyboard. While this allows you to play games on console that otherwise don’t support M&K controls, it also gives you serious unfair competitive advantages by making the console think you’re a gamepad player whilst giving you superior M&K controls and aim assist at the same time. With a XIM device you can go seal clubbing in console-only lobbies.
My other hypothesis is that they want to safeguard their console from firmware exploits that could bust the security of their console wide-open and allow for software piracy.
I don’t have an Xbox but I love that mouse and keyboard are considered cheating devices.
Reminds me of FFXI, where the devs considered Alt-Tabbing on PC cheating thus made it deliberately crash to desktop.
Where was this outrage when Xbox blocked the ability to use third party headsets? This just seems like a continuation of their long-held policy and is likely only happening now that they have their accessibility controller on the market.
