The Xbox 360’s white gamepad is coming back for modern systems

The Xbox 360’s original, white controller, which launched with the console — oh dear heavens, now 17 years ago to this very day — will return to life as an Xbox Series X peripheral thanks to Hyperkin, the peripheral makers behind the phat-and-phabulous Duke reboot for modern hardware.

Called “The Xenon” (for the Xbox 360’s first development codename) the throwback gamepad comes in four colors: pink, red, and the classic white and re-release black familiar to most. The Xenon may be used with any Xbox One, Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, or Windows PC. Pricing and availability were not mentioned in Tuesday’s announcement.

Although the buttons, thumbsticks, and directional pad look like 1:1 matches, there are also menu, view, and share buttons to support current capabilities. A promotional slick from Hyperkin said the controller has a rumble feature, but it didn’t specify whether that goes through the triggers, as has been the case from Xbox One forward.

Unfortunately, the Xenon is a wired controller only, though at least it’s not hard-wired. (The USB-C cable is detachable). The same went for the remade Duke, however, and that seemed to be a small price to pay for nostalgia.

It’s still nice to look at. It actually reminds me of the spring I spent living with my grandfather after the 2008 financial meltdown, playing 1 vs. 100 with friends in other timezones after he went to bed. Good times, long gone.