, critical consensus from around the web, and trusted recommendations from professionals and fellow gamers to prune our list down to these recommendations. All these are solid buys, some offering more bells and whistles than others. Third-party controllers have come a long way since the early days of console gaming when they were almost always inherently inferior to the 1st party controllers offered by Nintendo, Sega, or Sony.
The major consideration with these controllers is performance vs. price. What do you get for your money? Because the quality of third-party controllers is relatively high, “does it work” is pretty much a baseline. The secondary consideration is looks. To be honest, these are all good-looking controllers, but some may fit your ideal aesthetic more than others.The base Xbox controller, also known as the, retails for $60, nearly as much as—sometimes even more than—a new game.
However, a bit of caution: Most of the cheaper options for Xbox Controllers are going to be wired. Wireless tech is expensive, and quite frankly, that $60 Xbox Wireless Core Controller is probably still your best overall value for a wireless controller, even if it’s not exactly cheap. We only have one wireless recommendation in our list; it’s not officially licensed and occupies one of the USB inputs on your console .
But there’s good news, too! Due to Microsoft also being the company behind the primary gaming operating system for computers , every single one of these cheap Xbox controllers doubles as a PC controller with minimal set-up and often some nice customization options. So, beyond getting yourself a good, cheap Xbox controller, you’re also getting a good, cheap PC controller forWithout further ado, here’s the rundown of the buttons and sticks.