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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.

Error message shown on Xboc console when plugging in accessory (Image credit: Future)

It’s a big shift that’s going to impact all those accessories that don’t have the Xbox seal of approval. Made more apparent by Xbox redirecting the user to its own official storefront.

Our sources indicate that Microsoft is lifting restrictions on the ability for third-party hardware manufacturers to build wireless accessories for Xbox Series X|S devices.

Now, we’re hearing that Microsoft does have an approval process for official third-party wireless controllers, and this new restriction may be a result of new security measures to put restrictions on inputs that could circumvent play or inject unfair advantages.

The downside, of course, is that Xbox’s new policy is affecting many “fair” accessories, particularly in the case of fighting game joysticks and other similar accessories.

The problem seems to revolve around brands that haven’t acquired this licensing but still market their products as compatible with Xbox. It appears that Microsoft is actively blocking these items.

    • Aasikki@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Or just allow them always. It’s about the money, not about cheating. Also many games these days have cross play with PC anyways, where you can literally use a modified toaster as a controller if you want to lol.

      • beefcat@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        the problem is that there are some really good devices on the market that essentially let players cheat in shooters, getting mouse-like input while retaining the game’s built-in aim assist features.

        really the best compromise would be to let game developers decide whether unlicensed input devices can be used in their games (just like how they can choose whether to support m+kb). then shooters could impose reasonable restrictions without fucking over the fighting game community.