1 week ago
Hold your Chatpads close.
Xbox
Xbox controllers will nary longer travel pinch a proprietary description larboard — known arsenic nan Chatpad larboard to galore players — if each 3 of nan caller signs are to beryllium believed.
First, reports are rolling successful connected societal media that nan caller Forza Horizon 6 gamepad doesn't see a relationship constituent for Xbox accessories, and nan abstraction wherever nan larboard utilized to beryllium is visible but plugged up. Second, past week's leaked images of nan coming Xbox Elite Controller Series 3 show nary signs of an description port. And third, a mini statement of matter was added to nan Xbox Wireless Controller shop page successful April that says, "Not each versions of this controller see an description port." This statement was not successful nan Internet Archive's cache of nan page dated March 31, 2026.
In lawsuit you're not 1 for signs, we've besides contacted Xbox for explanation connected nan change.
The evident discontinuation isn't a complete surprise, considering Xbox hasn't produced a meaningful accessory for nan description larboard since nan dawn of nan existent console generation. The port's awesome declare to fame was nan Chatpad, which landed pinch nan Xbox 360 but was astir beloved successful nan Xbox One era arsenic online console gaming recovered its footing, and players were itching for speedy ways to pass pinch teammates and set settings connected nan fly. On apical of its duties arsenic a quick-access keyboard pinch programmable buttons, nan Chatpad fresh snugly successful nan nook of nan Xbox Wireless Controller and added a satisfying weightiness to its bottommost half. Plenty of users came to for illustration nan consciousness of nan controller pinch nan Chatpad, even.
Microsoft
This azygous accessory became a unsocial trading constituent for Xbox One gamepads successful particular, helping to solidify Microsoft arsenic nan leader of nan controller marketplace successful nan 2010s. The institution besides produced nan Stereo Headset Adapter for nan Xbox One, which had immoderate useful shortcut keys, and toyed astir pinch charging accessories that made usage of its proprietary connection point.
And then, Microsoft stopped paying attraction to nan description port. By 2019, it was clear that nan Chatpad had been softly discontinued, though Xbox ne'er made an charismatic announcement. Its latest surviving room hardware, nan Xbox Series X and Series S, landed successful November 2020 alongside a statement of freshly designed controllers, each pinch built-in description ports connected their bottoms. Xbox didn't dwell connected nan larboard (or moreover mention it) successful trading materials, and there's been nary susurration of revamped keyboards, headset adapters, chargers aliases different accessories this generation.
It's a astonishing miss not only because Xbox had a winning accessory connected its hands pinch nan Chatpad, but besides because Microsoft doesn't mind messing astir pinch weird and cutting-edge user hardware. These are nan folks who forced video crippled fans to interact pinch nan Kinect (twice!), and coming Xbox is simply a leader successful accessibility hardware pinch nan extremely rad Adaptive Controller and its ever-growing suite of accessories, courtesy of Microsoft's Inclusive Tech Lab.
From 1 perspective, nan Xbox controller has simply and people outgrown nan description port. The inclusion of a 3.5mm jack for stereo headsets negates nan request for a standalone adapter, and there's a keyboard usability successful nan Xbox app that lets players type unrecorded in-game. From different angle, Xbox is letting a constituent of invention dice astatine a clip erstwhile it's losing nan broader hardware game. As companies for illustration Nintendo person demonstrated — and Microsoft surely understands well — there's money to beryllium made successful trading offbeat, exclusive gaming accessories astatine lowkey-ridiculous prices. With nan description port, Xbox had nan instauration to adhd usability and whimsy to an already-successful gamepad empire, but pinch today's news of closed description ports, that pipeline whitethorn beryllium sealed for good.
