Drawing inspiration from their wife's interior decorations, an Xbox user created and ordered a new controller with the help of Xbox Design Lab. The Xbox gamer then posted the distinct, custom-designed controller on social media and compared the controller's appearance with some of their wife's favorite housing decorations.
Xbox Design Lab allows users to create custom Xbox Wireless Controllers, with different options available that allow users to change an Xbox controller's cosmetic features and mechanical options to their liking. Standard options include picking colors for controller parts, ranging from the face buttons to the bumpers, triggers, and controller grips. More advanced custom options include replacing the directional pad and adding more triggers along the grip. Recently, Xbox added their Elite Series 2 Controller lineup to Xbox Design Lab, which adds even further customization options for users to take advantage of. The Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller currently starts at $149.99 in Xbox Design Lab, with different options adding on to the price from there.
The original poster of this custom Xbox controller picture goes by the username Bristonian on Reddit. In their post on the official Xbox subreddit, Bristonian posted a picture of their brown Xbox Wireless Controller in a bowl containing some decorations, ranging from a pumpkin to a strand of beads, on a glass table placed atop a rug. The picture received over 2.5k upvotes within the first two days of the original posting date. Most of the comments were positive and praised the choice of colors for both the controller and the housing decorations. With a myriad of Xbox Design Lab customization options and features to choose from, Bristonian went with a standard Xbox Wireless Controller as the base.
According to Bristonian's comments, they chose the Desert Tan color scheme within Xbox Design Lab. The majority of the controller had a matte finish while the D-Pad and the triggers received a metallic finish. In addition, the face buttons and options buttons had a white-on-white color scheme. Both the metallic options for the D-Pad and triggers cost an additional $3.99 apiece, on top of the baseline $69.99 price tag. This meant that, before sales taxes and shipping costs were considered, the controller that Bristonian ordered went for a $77.97 subtotal on Xbox Design Lab at the time of the post.
Though the price of a custom Xbox Design Labs controller is higher than the standard controllers available at many retailers, the additional options make up for it. With games such as Overwatch 2 collaborating with Xbox Design Lab as well, the options continue to grow for Xbox Design Lab users around the world.
However, there may yet be more to come from the Xbox controller developer team. A recent patent from Microsoft concerning quieter analog sticks has been making the rounds on social media. Between that and the options available within Xbox Design Lab, Microsoft will continue to make and innovate new controller designs and features for console, PC, and mobile users alike.