D-pad

While waiting for my 360 to get repaired, I've busted out my Sega Dreamcast and been playing various Capcom 2D fighters, games such as the totally off-the-wall Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. I'd just played it on a friend's PS2, and the contrast in the controllers got me thinking, "Why doesn't Sega license its D-pad patent to Microsoft or Sony?

Ever since the Genesis, Sega has made hands down the best D-pad controllers for 2D fighting games. This came about initially because Nintendo invented the D-pad as a cheeper alternative to the joystick and held the patent on it. Sega was forced to invent its own patentable D-pad. When Sega was still in the hardware business it made sense for it to keep the best for itself, but now that it's been six or seven years since they've manufactured any console hardware, why not make or license the right to make a decent D-pad for a modern console? Those special anniversary edition Street Fighter controllers for the original Xbox perfectly imitated the look of Sega's controllers without any of the quality, from what I hear.

We all know that Sega's forgotten how to make games, so why not at least make some money off replacing Microsoft's woefully bad D-pad? Even Major Nelson says Microsoft's D-pad is lousy.

Posted by Graven on Thu May 29, 2008 @ 9:44 pm EDT | 0 Comments