Xenon Xbox Controller Released on Xbox 360’s 17th Anniversary

The Xbox 360 console was definitely well ahead of its time when it was released in 2005, and it holds an important place in gaming history as far as the advancement of graphics and consoles in an era where gaming was still relatively new. When the console hit the market, the PlayStation 2 was arguably the most popular console out there and people were still consistently playing the likes of Nintendo 64, Nintendo, Sega Genesis and Game Cube.

While the aforementioned consoles are absolute classics, they lacked a lot in terms of graphics and performance, but at the time it was all we knew as gamers and we accepted it. The Xbox 360 was really one of the first consoles that broke that graphic advancement barrier in comparison to the original Xbox and the others on the market at the time, and the growth has been parabolic since then. For these reasons though, the Xbox 360 has forever etched its place in the history of gaming as helping to start the true paradigm shift to next-gen consoles with improved hardware and graphics.

Xbox recently celebrated the 17th anniversary of the release of the Xbox 360, and it didn’t garner any real significant media attention, but the real fans were certainly aware. As a result, Hyperkin announced the release of a replica Xbox 360 controller for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The original Xbox 360 controller was a huge upgrade from the original Xbox controller as it was much smaller and lighter, and it was a lot easier to play games.

Hyperkin’s Xenon model is a throwback to 2005 when the first Xbox 360 controller was released, and it’s a neat flashback in time to the early days of Xbox. The controller will be wired only, without a wireless version available, and it will also be compatible with PC. The Xbox 360 controller is one of the best modern controllers that we have available in gaming, so this should be pretty sweet. Gamers shouldn’t expect anything too crazy though, as at its heart its simply a replica of the original controller, but nonetheless it will be fun to play modern games with the replica controller.

Hyperkin has not released any details about the release date, the price, pre-ordering and more just yet, but the controller itself has been confirmed. Xenon has the potential to be quite popular because of its compatibility and design. How they price it and the amount of units produced are certainly going to play a factor in how well the controller does, but for us old school gamers it’s definitely very exciting.

Unfortunately it won’t be around before the holidays, which is disappointing, but early 2023 is a likely target for its release. Gamers are hoping for a wireless version, which would be an absolute game-changer, but it’s not in the pipeline right now. All eyes will be on Hyperkin’s updates regarding the release of the replica model in the meantime.