Why are gamepads so fucking expensive in 2017?

Time advances, technology evolves and older stuff gets cheaper… but gamepads have stayed consistently expensive even though it has barely evolved since the PS1 era. In fact, with the wireless era introduced widely by the 360, they got a lot more expensive, but in 2017 being wireless isn't a marvel of technology anymore… other stuff that is wireless got cheaper with the years, but not gamepads. The PS4 put a shitty trackpad there but c'mon. Gyroscopic stuff is done by even the shittest of the chink tech. WHY ARE GAMEPADS SO FUCKING EXPENSIVE STILL? even wired controllers for PC are expensive. 2 decades ago they were affordable and definitely more durable than today (barring N64 gamepads), and they did the same stuff that gamepads do today.

Is it just because "gamers" are stupid as hell and buy everything?

Yes. Jew thread? Jew thread.
Slit the Jews throats and end their greedy tyranny. WE WILL MAKE A REVOLUTION

Combination of being stuffed with more expensive devices as time goes on (gyroscopes of decent-enough quality, touchscreens, legacy vibration motors), and their being sold at a high mark-up so they make a tidy profit on every controller. Chances are if they were sold at a break-even price it'd be somewhere between $15 and $30.

...

The better question is why they are so shit. Wired 360 was the last passable controller and even that was pretty shit.

Let's see, you have the Jews and retards that enable said Jews to get money.

because innovation and patents. can't copy a good controller without getting sued by that company and that company dumped the good controller so they could "innovate" themselves a more retarded one while still maintaining the patent over the good one because fuck you

Jude?

What changed in 2005? the fucking gamecube wireless controller was priced at $35 at launch, yet in the past gen everyone decided that controllers should cost $60 at minimum. The fucking Sixaxis was the same controller than the PS1 dualshock, WITHOUT vibration and with the laziest, shittest gyroscopic controls of all time. Again, price bump. Explain this fucking shit if it's not greed.

There's more stuff in them. Also you're paying for R&D, and the consoles are usually sold cheap with the accessories sold at a markup to make up for it. Also inflation happened.
If you want one cheap just get it used. Make sure the previous owner isn't some fat sperg who doesn't know how to clean his controller and you should be fine.
Funnily enough the Steam controller is pretty cheap, even though it has more stuff in it than the other ones. Too bad you need Steam running to use it, but people are working on open drivers. It's great for Gamecube/Wii emulation.

Gee I fucking wonder

Uh, no. You're retarded. Not even going to explain how you're wrong

OK, OP's image was a bad example, but what about everything else? the Xbox controller, WiiU pro controller, the 360 controller, the Dual Shock 3…

meant for

Simple.

How often do you replace a game pad? Once ever few years or so? Companies have to account for this lower occurrence of purchase by making their goods more expensive (usually involving more quality materials that allow it to take more rage beatings, temperature changes, and clicks/presses).

Think of it this way, you need to get more RAM for your rig. You can either guy the shit $10~$20 sticks or you can get the Corsair stuff that'll hold you off for a few years.

Combination of factors, chief among them is a lack of competition and likely is lockouts against unlicensed products. Not only that but the fact that almost all of them run on bluetooth means they all pay license fees for the tech.
To summarize, the factors involved are as follows:

I definitely recall 360 wureless controllers started at $40, while wired were $25 or so. Check out prices on the wired rock candy Xbone pads for an example of what a basic pad runs. (btw, totally rec'd, that pad is pretty solid, though I had to superglue the cable into the controller. USB has no retention after all.)

Because only goys buy them.

i bought that exact controller for $30. the regular black ones are as cheap as 15-20. i got the beautiful red one for $40.

how poor are you to consider this expensive?

PS1 and PS2 controllers were not wireless and did not required built-in lithium batteries.

Wireless is a big part of why all modern controllers are shit. I wish they would go back to proper wired controllers.

Wired controllers are only good for fighting games these days.

Rock Candy controllers are usually wired to cut costs. The XBone controller is nearly identical, in terms of ergonomics, to the OEM controller, and works about as well.

Can't speak to the PSNoGames models

Wireless is shit for long sessions and gaming in general.


There is no point to those over a 360 wired on pc, price is close enough, the dpad is still shit, and the build quality is lower.

Do modern wireless controllers really run on Bluetooth? I never knew that.

How do you know what 2017 is like? Are you a time traveler?

I got one of the updated xbone controllers for $34 on Amazon.
Maybe you just need to stop sucking dicks?

Better than giving MS shekels, user. Xinput ain't going away any time soon

Gimmicks features to justify the price which, in combination with licensing requirements, make it impossible for third parties to compete with the official controllers except with expensive fight sticks and
=FUCKING MADCATZ
crap that you will immediately regret.

Haven't you heard? John Oliver destroyed the Current Year +1, and has already moved on to Current Year +2, or as I like to call it: 2 C.Y.

They are?
They have rumbles and wireless things in them so that costs more but they're still like $40.

If you account for inflation, wouldn't controllers being the same price for the last ten or fifteen years mean they have in fact gotten cheaper?

they're not too bad if you don't get the console controllers, though the hori controllers are the only third parties i've found to be very good.

Only smart nigga in the whole thread

Dont be silly, things were always cheaper in the past.

Does anyone know of a good controller that has analog and 6 face/action buttons on the right side?

I prefer having six buttons so I can emulate n64 and genesis without using separate controllers, also added buttons for emulating stuff like shake/mic blowing on buttons

I don't miss those days.

Because indefinite patents, if we went back to 5 year max on patents everything would be crazy cheap.