Microsoft Talks About Why There Are No Tilt Or Motion Sensors in the Xbox One Controller

Kotaku covered the Xbox One controller pretty extensively earlier today, and while the coverage was top notch, there was one glaring question that they forgot to address, that they have since appended to their original report: namely, why does the Xbox One controller lack motion and tilt sense capabilities when it has become such a standard feature across all devices in today’s market?

“We could have added sixaxis and gyros for tilt and motion but they’re actually not that accurate. We have a lot of history with them and a lot of experience with them with the way we have done the 360 steering wheel. We decided to take a different path. What we did we added IR LEDs to the front [of the controller]. You can’t see them on the front of the actual controller. And in addition to the LEDs we also had reflective material added inside the device, so essentially the system knows in space where the controller is and you are able to bind your profile to the actual controller you are holding in your hand,” said Microsoft’s Zulfi Alam.

I guess it’s an equivalent capability, but since it is not the standard- the DualShock 4, Wii U Pad, Wii Remote, PlayStation Move, iOS devices, Android devices, Nintendo 3DS, and PlayStation Vita all offer this capability- there’s not much telling if it’s gonna be utilized by developers much at all.