The Duke Returns in April
Time to work on those hand stretching exercises.
If the Xbox One controller feels a little too small, well get ready because The Duke controller is coming back.
Seamus Blackley, considered the “father of the Xbox,” showed off the controller on the debut episode of Inside Xbox yesterday.
He recounts his inspiration for the original Xbox and his time promoting the console. At the time, the controller with the console — nicknamed The Duke after the name of the son of fellow Xbox founding member Brett Schnepf — was criticized over its size. This led to a redesign making it smaller and was known as the Xbox Controller S.
After coming across an original controller in his office, he joked about bringing back the controller on Twitter and was surprised by the response.
Phil Spencer, Executive Vice President of Gaming at Microsoft, got in touch with Blackley shortly after the tweet. That started the process to bring back the The Duke.
Blackley worked with accessory manufacturer Hyperkin to modernize the oversized controller to work with the Xbox One and Xbox One X. New to The Duke is an OLED display that will play the original Xbox console boot up sequence. It has the same form and button layout with an additional two bumper buttons. The controller will also be wired only.
Microsoft first announced the return of The Duke during its presentation at E3 last year with a planned holiday release. After a few delays, The Duke will now make its return on April 30.
The Duke controller is available for pre-order exclusively at Gamestop for $69.99.
