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XBox (Games) Microsoft Technology

Xbox's New Policy Says Goodbye To Unofficial Accessories (windowscentral.com) 127

In a significant development for Xbox users, the era of tinkering with your console to use unapproved accessories is drawing to a close. From a report: Xbox has taken a definitive stance by instituting a new policy that will block the use of unauthorized accessories with its consoles, effective as of November 17. This decision has already begun to reverberate amongst the gaming community, and many have already had a warning about it on their consoles in the form of error message 0x82d60002.

The error message states: "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)."

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Xbox's New Policy Says Goodbye To Unofficial Accessories

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  • Uh no (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @01:41PM (#63966434) Journal

    For help returning it, check with the store it came from or contact the manufacturer.

    How about returning the XBox?

    • Re:Uh no (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rogoshen1 ( 2922505 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @01:48PM (#63966466)

      >Using unauthorized accessories compromises your gaming experience
      i LOVE lines like that, the corporate-speak is just delicious.
      What they're really saying
      "unauthorized accessories probably work better, and are cheaper than our officially branded crap; this hurts our revenue stream, so we must clamp down on it"

      • Re:Uh no (Score:5, Insightful)

        by DarkRookie2 ( 5551422 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @01:49PM (#63966474)
        Work better, no.
        Cheaper. Yes. Often to the tune of 50-66% less.

        But you nail it on the head. This isn't about security, privacy, or anything user focuses. This is protect a revenue stream.
        • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          The main reason for creating that super expensive branded xbox controller was that this was a well developed market by third parties. Who still make better controllers than that to this day, often for less than the official one.

          • by Luthair ( 847766 )
            I agree with the other guy, the only reason one buys a third party controller is because its cheaper than the official one. I've never used an unofficial or to be frank even a licensed controller that works better than the official OEM one.
            • Re:Uh no (Score:5, Interesting)

              by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @05:23PM (#63967148)

              Then you haven't used many if any unlicensed controllers. Almost all of them (apart from the absolutely cheapest ones) have very obviously superior quality to the official ones.

              For example, I used to use xbox360 wireless controller and I now moved to logitech F710 (both are from the same design time). Other than the PS style position of "stick low left, d pad high left", they're very similar, down to being powered by two AA batteries making these effectively immune to the primary failure mode of "built in battery wore out".

              It's generally vastly superior to 360 wireless in at least following ways:

              1. Dongle is much smaller and packs inside the controller battery compartment for easy transport.
              2. Proper DirectInput support for older games that just works with a manual switch on the controller.
              3. Build quality is noticeably better.
              4. Use of non-slip material in grips on the side (360 wireless is all slippery textured plastic and tends to get slippery for people with sweaty hands like one of my friends).
              5. Vibration is can be switched on and off on the controller with a single button press.
              6. Much better triggers.
              7. Much better battery compartment design. In xb360 wireless, the compartment requires insertion of the entire battery into a very tight hole (cue the jokes) which means that modern 2500mAh NiMH batteries do not fit it. Technically you can force one in, but you'll have a hell of a time getting it out (ask me how I know). In F710, compartment is clearly designed with that in mind and larger diameter 2500 mAh NiMH batteries fit fine. It's almost a much faster process to swap batteries between the two.
              8. Hats on joysticks are superior. This becomes especially evident after some wear settles in, where concave and slippery plastic design on xb360 wireless becomes extremely slippery when hands are even a little bit slippery, while the four protruding directional guides at the sides become much more pronounced and start to actually hurt your thumb during longer play sessions. F710 is convex, material is more rubbery and less plasticky making it much less slippery when worn down, and it lacks the directional guides meaning that they won't start to dig into your skin as wear starts to progress.
              9. Mode switching for left Dpad and joystick (allowing input to switch between the two if you want to for example control movement with D-pad even when game expects joystick input for movement only).

              But that's just for me because I wanted something that is "similar in terms of features, but better in every meaningful way". If you want actual additional features, typical stuff on more high end controller includes:

              1. Rapid clicking switches for buttons (pressing button down results in "button mashing" input).
              2. Additional buttons for games that support extended inputs (usually configurable under steam or driver package that sets those buttons as keyboard inputs to support games that only support plain XInput).
              3. Configurable triggers with set depths (especially important for games where trigger depth input changes what it does).
              4. Hall effect sensor joysticks. Or just normal ones but of much higher quality than "official" ones, which tend to be just barely better than worst options on the market.
              5. Better quality buttons.
              6. Higher polling rates for wireless.

              • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                Controllers that replace the joystick with buttons are controversial in fighting games because they supposedly offer a big advantage.

                Instead of a joystick or d-pad, you have 4 buttons: up, down, left, right. The advantage is that moves which were previously slow, like say doing a 270 degree spin on the joystick, is now as fast as sliding a finger over the row of buttons. You can also do some game breaking stuff like press left and right simultaneously.

                From what I understand they are tournament legal in most

                • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                  >Controllers that replace the joystick with buttons are controversial in fighting games because they supposedly offer a big advantage.

                  Yes, that is why I said "if you want a high end controller". The point of getting a high end controller is getting a significant advantage in games through things like more button options, high accuracy joysticks, adjustable triggers, higher polling rate and so on. These are all features designed to give you an advantage over people using garbage controllers, just like hav

              • The 510 was better than the 710.
                The wireless on the 710 was always buggy. At least for me. I liked the 510 since it had the rumble where the 310 did not.
                • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                  To my knowledge, there was a time when the shift to the universal non-encrypted nano receiver caused serious problems with interoperability for a lot of logitech wireless gear, including F710. This was fixed pretty quickly however and logitech is generally pretty good at replacing parts. You can probably order the properly working receiver from them for cheap even if you are long out of warranty. I personally never had this problem because I followed up on the issue and bought mine only after the problem wa

            • I stopped console gaming in the PS2 era, but back then, the third party stuff often worked better AND was cheaper than the official shit. Mad Catz was the shit.

        • Re:Uh no (Score:5, Informative)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot@worf.ERDOSnet minus math_god> on Monday October 30, 2023 @04:39PM (#63967044)

          But you nail it on the head. This isn't about security, privacy, or anything user focuses. This is protect a revenue stream.

          Actually, it's also to protect against cheating.

          There are numerous "macro adapters" that people have been plugging into PS5s and Xboxes that basically allow controller level cheating - if you wanted to do a combo, you could hit one button and the macro adapter will do the combo for you perfectly every time. This also applies to games like Call of Duty where gun lift is a thing, and the macro basically fires the gun, then hits "down" enough to counteract the gun lift so you're still aiming at the right spot every time.

          Common devices like Cronus are detectable and can get you banned. But these are merely the tip of the iceberg.

          https://www.cronusmax.com/ [cronusmax.com]

          Yes, these are unauthorized devices. There are plenty of authorized devices out there - you can buy cheap PS5 and Xbox gamepads that are half the price if you wanted and they will work just fine. 8bitdo has a line of pads that are authorized by all the big players.

          • I understand the cheating aspect, but why not simply ban them for online gameplay? I don't give a flying shit about multiplayer and I suspect there are other games who don't either. Let me cheat on singleplayer in peace and disable unauthorized devices for online play. This reads more like a cashgrab than trying to stop cheating.

            • Even better, leave it up to each game. Let them query whether an unofficial controller is connected. Developers of competitive games will probably choose to block it. Developers of casual or social oriented games will probably choose not too. There are lots of online games where cheating isn't a concern.

            • I don't give a flying shit about multiplayer

              Because you're in the minority and it's easier to apply a global policy that meets the majority of users.

            • Not to mention that it would be pretty straightforward to design a little daugherboard to slot into a genuine controller that could take care of button combos etc. So there's no way that a "genuine" controller is going to stop cheating.

          • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            I modified one of my Switch controllers (a Pokken third party but authorized one) to have autofire. I have arthritis in my hands and occasionally in Mario Maker I need to mash a button, but it's painful.

            I suppose it's technically cheating if I use it to win in multiplayer, but this ban applies to single player modes too.

            In any case it's probably not going to be detected because it modifies the original hardware, if Nintendo were even looking. It could be detected by looking for very consistent high speed ma

          • Actually it’s about cheating but actually it’s about making money.

          • This sounds like a lot of some horseshit spin a software dev would make to excuse their shitty software.
            We cant make software that prevent cheating, so we are going to force everyone to use the thing same thing so we dont have to work.
            And we get another revenue stream.
      • Re:Uh no (Score:4, Informative)

        by Oryan Quest ( 10291375 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @01:59PM (#63966508)

        The xbox controller is one of the better controllers on the market but console gaming is simply not worth it anymore unless you’re really into nintendo exclusives, you’re a kid, or you wanna play online with friends who already made a foolish purchase.

        The consoles might sell for a lot less than an equivalent PC but once you’re up and running with a quality PSU the price of games is so much lower and you can just keep upgrading. It’s really a poor tax in the long run.

        • by NFN_NLN ( 633283 )

          > The xbox controller is one of the better controllers on the market

          I'll put forward that they are purposely designed to have a limited lifespan; and that isn't just opinion.
          I encourage you to look into hall effect sensors vs potentiometer joysticks. XBOX sticks are known to fail AND there is an available solution. If you can buy drone controllers like Radiomaster for $65 that come with hall effect sticks, programable OS and that even includes the extra expense of the radio transceiver then surely they

      • "Dear XBox, I am trying to compromise my gaming experience, but seem to be encountering road blocks preventing this. Can you help?"

    • I mean you can try, but you may want to check with the store it came from only. The manufacturer will just laugh in your face. And no you don't have a legal right to something that was never officially supported in the first place. Mind you based on some legal rulings on these matters in the past 2 decades you don't have a legal right to something that was officially supported too, as Linux users on PS3s can attest to.

  • by LainTouko ( 926420 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @01:55PM (#63966496)
    Ordinary people aren't allowed to damage the property of others. Corporations should not be allowed to damage the property of millions of others either.
    • 1 person: it is a crime
      1,000,000 people: It is now a stat
    • Ordinary people aren't allowed to damage the property of others. Corporations should not be allowed to damage the property of millions of others either.

      Your peripherals still work, they just don't work together. Good luck fighting for damages to your xbox experience, but the EULA you accepted says the software doesn't actually have to do anything.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by sabri ( 584428 )

        Good luck fighting for damages to your xbox experience, but the EULA you accepted says the software doesn't actually have to do anything.

        Good luck understanding that, at least in the U.S., your EULA is worth less than toilet paper in court.

        The only thing a EULA does in this context is create the presumption of "the user agreed to this so we can do whatever the fuck we want".

        In contract law, again, at least in the U.S., courts also look at what is reasonable, especially considering that A. it was working before, B. the difference in bargaining power between the end-user and the corporation, and C. the fact that it is often difficult to a

        • In the US the billionaires controlling both parties make sure the only judges that get appointed are ones that think however large corps want to screw people is reasonable. And yeah they look at the difference in bargaining power, and laugh about it or get mad you're wasting their time.
      • "We refuse to let your new automobile start because we sense the presence of a passenger who might degrade your driving experience!"

    • Corporations should not be allowed to damage the property of millions of others either.

      Blocking something that never was officially supported is not "damage the property". It may be a dick move, but it doesn't fit any of the legal definitions. You can't just make up your own interpretation of the legal system. It doesn't work like that.

      • I suppose you can argue that, assuming the controllers have a proprietary and undocumented interface. I also suppose you're an Apple fan.

        • I also suppose you're an Apple fan.

          I suppose you never pay attention when reading slashdot. I've been accused of being a lot of Apple things. But never a fan, and I take offense at the insinuation.

  • so why block keyboard and mouse that are not xbox ones?

    What about adding an big sticker says USB ports are not USB and most USB devices will not work.

    • by DarkRookie2 ( 5551422 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @01:58PM (#63966506)
      Slapping an Xbox logo on one of their $10 keyboards would allow them to charge $60 for it instead of $10.
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        It will allow third party manufacturers to charge even more too. They will simply take the PCB out of a genuine XBOX gamepad, attach their own custom PCB that routes their buttons to the right traces on Microsoft's board, and sell them for $60 + whatever they were charging before.

        Do Microsoft encrypt the USB traffic from their controllers? If not, it should be possible to do a man-in-the-middle attack too.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

      What about adding an big sticker says USB ports are not USB and most USB devices will not work.

      Interesting idea we should flip on its head. The USB ports of the devices quite clearly have an USB logo meaning they should work with USB devices. I wonder if this can be seen as a breach of their certification.

  • Prediction (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PetiePooo ( 606423 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @01:57PM (#63966504)
    This will trend to the top of several sites, generate a slew of bad PR for Microsoft, and they will backtrack and defer it to some undetermined later date that will never come around. They will recover from the bad PR with a small uptick in official accessories from those that are afraid that error will come around again. Their next console will only allow official accessories from the start.

    You heard it here first.
  • Excuse me? A controller (Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2) can be US$189.99 ? Damn I understand people wants to buy 3rd party one! Back in my time you almost had a console for $200, not a lone controller.
    • Back in my time you almost had a console for $200, not a lone controller.

      Yeah but back in your time, $200 was a month's rent.

    • It's a professional submersible guidence device.
    • You can get cheaper controllers, but yeah, it's a valid point. A couple of fancy controllers and you're getting into PC money.

      However, the dreamcast was pretty much the last non-nintendo console at $200

    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      That controller came to be because there is a thriving market in that price range for controllers that were vastly superior to anything microsoft ever offered "officially". They basically looked at that market, asked "why don't we have anything in this price range and with profit margins we could get from selling a 70-80 grade controller for 200 pretending that it is actually worth 200?"

      Fun part is, there are genuinely good controllers in that price range that wipe the floor with the elite controller to thi

    • The official standard controllers are considerably cheaper and also considerably lower quality. Time was 3rd party controllers were usually 20% cheaper but only half as good as the real deal. You'd go to a friend's house and be handed the Mad Catz horror show reserved for player 2. But microsoft has never made good controllers, they've always been failure prone and cheap. The series controllers feel like prototype plastic. Here's a mockup, we'll use something good for the final release. The Elite is an expe
  • by Randseed ( 132501 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @02:03PM (#63966520)
    Can Microsoft find a way to blame the sinking of a minisub on the claim that the X-box controller used to pilot the thing was "unauthorized?" Maybe lives could have been saved if they'd refused to connect the controller and put up some error message like "A connected accessory is not authorized. Using unauthorized accessories compromises your living 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)." /s
    • To be clear the sub controller was a Logitech controller

      What is interesting is the new Virginia Class attack subs use a literal wired XBox controller for the periscope as an option since the new kids in the Navy already know it so well:

      https://youtu.be/0StWrXoN8nI?t... [youtu.be]

      • by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @02:52PM (#63966692)

        This is likely because these controllers use a well documented XInput mode. Logitech controller in question uses the exact same input mode that comes from the dongle that it wirelessly connects to. From perspective of the machine, they're most likely indistinguishable in terms of input signals. It's just hardware ID that differs.

        Logitech controller also has the old DirectInput mode as a fallback option though (controlled by a hardware switch in the back of the controller), so it's actually more compatible than xbox360 one.

      • Makes sense. More sense than getting the exact same controller mounted in a grey metal enclosure from Raytheon at $39,000 a pop.
  • By definition, utterly-locked-down devices. They’re the North Korea of gaming systems. You follow the rules and you stay in the marked lanes, or you wind up in the gulag.

    If you want freeeedduuuummmmmmm while you game, you should consider some system that’s explicitly designed to be extremely modular and customizable, from the ground up. I’ve heard about these things called “windows PCs” that might be worth looking into.
    • As much as I blame microsoft for a great many ills that have befallen gaming, bringing standardised controllers to the PC was one of their beneficial moves. I remember the horror of trying to control PC games with first gameport devices and then USB direct input things and I don't think I was ever satisfied. From mismatched axis mapping, button prompts with raw numbers and menu systems that could see the sticks/buttons, but had no way to actually utilise them in a similar way to the console port of the game

  • USA only? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @02:22PM (#63966588) Homepage
    I realise this can be done in the USA as corporations there have more rights there than normal people, but this kind of thing is illegal in other countries. Basically you can't take away functionality and cost owners money unless this was clearly stated at the time of purchase. Burying it in the pages of T&C won't save them either. Here in New Zealand our consumer protection laws use phrases such as 'what is fair and reasonable'. That would cover things like plugging in a non-Microsoft mouse or keyboard into a USB port, particularly if that worked at the time the Xbox was purchased.

    Of course the New Zealand government can't force Microsoft to reverse such changes their Xbox software but they can force the local Xbox retailers to accept back the Xboxes sold by them and provide the buyers a full refund. The sucky part here is the consumer protection laws here don't extend resellers so the shops that sold them can't force Microsoft to refund them. If they do that you can expect it to be a lot harder to find shops selling Xboxes.
    • but this kind of thing is illegal in other countries. Basically you can't take away functionality and cost owners money unless this was clearly stated at the time of purchase.

      You say that, but no other countries have not taken this stance. Firstly these third party devices were never a part of the core advertisement. You are literally still getting the exact same product you were promised on the packaging. Removing the ability to do something that was not promised to you in the first place is not illegal anywhere. Now if MS removed the ability for the Xbox controller to work, you'd be on to something.

      But ...

      Sony did advertise the ability to run Linux on the PS3. All suits were e

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The problem is that it's tricky to legally undo this kind of thing.

      You can get the XBOX refunded. But what about the games? If you bought them from XBOX Live you might be able to get a partial refund. But if you bought them from somewhere else, that retailer isn't to blame for Microsoft making their game unplayable for you.

      Same with peripherals and other accessories.

      Similar issue if your console is wrongly banned, or your Steam account wrongly closed. Unravelling it all can be difficult. Your best bet is Sm

  • being Microsoft!
  • There are two main reasons for this.

    1. Cheating. These companies are doing their best to reign in cheating in these games. The cheat market is huge. Physical devices to cheat ruin these experiences for everyone. One example is the Cronus Zen.
    2. Of course they would love to license everything plugged in. Likely with an advertisement API.

    --
    If you can't make it good, at least make it look good. - Bill Gates

    • by quall ( 1441799 )

      Doesn't that just let you swap buttons around or use a mouse+KB instead of a controller? Or just script some button presses that you might have a hard time reaching or doing? Doesn't seem like cheating to me. Then again I play games on my PC where this type of thing isn't an issue. Seems pretty dumb not to allow people to use an input device that they prefer.

  • by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @02:49PM (#63966678)

    I have to wonder if it's possible to fool the Xbox. If so, how long it will take for hackers to reverse-engineer whatever process and protocol is used to determine a "genuine" accessory? Then they'll design a dongle, probably based on some Atmel processor, that sits between the unofficial accessory and the Xbox and makes it look genuine.

    I really hope that happens. But what would be better is if legislators managed to simultaneously grow a pair and acquire a conscience. Then they could just tell Microsoft to fuck off, and stop them from vandalizing customers' hardware.

    If Microsoft had the guts to be honest, their error message would say "Microsoft stopping you from using unauthorized accessories compromises your gaming experience - but we're doing it anyway, because we can, and because profit".

    Also, fuck Microsoft gently with a chainsaw sideways.

    • by _xeno_ ( 155264 )

      I have to wonder if it's possible to fool the Xbox. If so, how long it will take for hackers to reverse-engineer whatever process and protocol is used to determine a "genuine" accessory?

      In theory, sure, but in practice, probably not: the way Sony blocks third-party controllers on the PS5 is by doing a cryptographic challenge-response. Controller doesn't have a valid certificate? It's not allowed.

      I have no idea if the Xbox controllers also have private keys embedded in them, but it's possible that they're using cryptographic verification, in which case you'd have to get the key, and then it would only be a matter of time before it gets revoked.

  • by sit1963nz ( 934837 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @02:55PM (#63966702)
    "A connected accessory is not authorized. Using unauthorized accessories compromises our profits. For this reason, the unauthorized accessory will be blocked from use on 11/12/2023"
  • by zendarva ( 8340223 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @02:59PM (#63966712)
    It's the exact reason i game on a PC and not a console.
  • There goes someone's special Chess device.

    https://nypost.com/2022/10/06/... [nypost.com]

  • This will hurt Xbox. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Monday October 30, 2023 @03:31PM (#63966852)

    Disclaimer: Xbox user here.

    This is a really really stupid decision on behalf of the Xbox division at MS. Xbox was/is the underdog in the console wars and unlike other products the Xbox actually has a solid sympathy bonus which is a very rare thing for MS. Point in case: I wouldn't touch windows with a ten foot pole for anything mission critical. The last version I personally used was Windows2k. Yet I am quite the paying customer for MS, with all things Xbox. The moment my cheap rgb keyboard that has been on my Xbox for roughly 3 years starts triggering error messages they'll lose karma with me.

    Xbox could so easily differentiate themselves from the cheap lot by offering premium accessories that aren't just overpriced and half-assed *glances to elite controller (1)*, and yet they choose to go this route.

    Yes, I get the need to prevent cheating with input bots and cheat accessories, but the press release for that would look and sound different. And I suspect the ceos really don't care.

    This is about getting greedy is my strong suspicion and if they misstep they will lose a lot of sympathy. And customers.

    I wouldn't be surprised if they both this epic style and have to backpedal. It's a shame really. Do like the platform and would hate to see it go down the shitter.

  • by necro81 ( 917438 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @03:33PM (#63966862) Journal
    I'm not a console gamer, so I don't know the state of the market for non-official controllers and the like. I can understand how some folks would take it waaaaay too seriously, and will be seriously pissed by this new development.

    But I do know that the disabled community have been hacking together their own game controllers for a long, long time. About as long as video games have existed! Each person's needs are different: one gamer may be able need really large buttons to mash, others may need to wire in a custom two-axis joystick that they can manipulate more easily. For a long time it was just within the community. I wonder if those hacked-together controllers will just stop working now?

    One sliver of good news is that some years ago [slashdot.org] XBox introduced the Adaptive Controller [xbox.com], which made it pretty easy and clean to wire in any number or type of input devices. Being an official accessory, presumably that will still work.
  • Isn't there some way this can be turned into a class action lawsuit treating it as a fully anti-competitive action?

  • by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Monday October 30, 2023 @05:10PM (#63967116) Journal

    I could be wrong but I don't think Microsoft is going to win this one- a million hackers and crafters just heard the starting gun go off.

  • Is why I'll never purchase any console newer than a Sega Genesis.

"The vast majority of successful major crimes against property are perpetrated by individuals abusing positions of trust." -- Lawrence Dalzell

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