The Days of Awful Third-Party Controllers Are Over
If you've been gaming for a while, you probably have a story about a terrible third-party controller. But now these off-brand manufacturers are making some of the best controllers in the market today.
The Age of Bad Third-Party Controllers
Third-party controllers have developed a stigma that dates back to the 90s when home consoles hit the mainstream. Many of these controllers never worked quite right or stopped working a month after you purchased them. They were made from terrible plastic that felt horrible to play with after a few minutes, let alone over a full gaming session.
Third-party controllers have typically been seen as inferior to their full-price counterparts. First-party controllers from Nintendo, Sony, and Sega were well-made and able to withstand the rigors of long gaming sessions and the occasional toss on the ground in frustration. The only exception, in my experience, was the Nintendo 64 controller, which had a fragile design from the start.
Third-party controllers were less expensive, but this was because they were made from cheap materials. The ergonomics were sub-par and buttons stopped working far too quickly, leaving you with a hunk of plastic you couldn't do anything with.
Even when third-party controllers offered something over the first-party competition, such as a Turbo Mode or wireless functionality, it rarely worked as intended. Even to this day, I still prefer wired controllers to wireless ones, even if "wired" means keeping a wireless controller plugged into a USB slot at all times.
Too many unfulfilled promises of minimal input lag, long battery life, and perfect Bluetooth connectivity with proprietary dongles have me unconvinced. I'd rather deal with a long wire rather than my DualSense running out of battery at a pivotal point in my game (even if you do get warning from the console to plug in).
Essentially, controllers used to be a "you get what you pay for" situation. You had to pay a bit more for a first-party controller, but it
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