My 8bitdo story, back when they’re we’re just starting to put joysticks on their SNES style controllers, I used mine to the point that the joysticks were falling apart. I sent them a support email, and even though it wasn’t covered by any warranty or anything, a very nice Chinese person working there sent me a spare set of joysticks in the mail, plus words of encouragement (in somewhat broken English) since I wasn’t shy about fixing the thing myself.
Can’t imagine that today, but it was a nice gesture and I’m glad they’re still making stuff today.
Yep. I just bought an 8bitdo controller a few weeks ago with a defective RB button. I asked support if there was anything I could do to reseat it or replace a membrane to fix it. Support said either take it back to where I bought it or ship it to them in China to get fixed on my dime. That left a bad taste in my mouth for their products.
To be fair: They are probably not working with a lot of margin and shipping it bavk to china is costly for them.
If I buy on AliExpress I am under the impression of it either fits or needs to be trashed. But returning is very unlikely.
And 8bitdo is (when not being sold by a 3rd party like for example microcenter) just another chinese seller/manufacturer on AliExpress or Amazon^(which is just a chinese shipping proxy with some local sellers nowadays)
My joystick broke on my Ultimate controller. It could have been my fault or it could’ve been when I was traveling for work or the two year-old. Either way, I managed to take the front cover off and look at the joysticks and order a new set from AliExpress. Less than four dollars later and 20 minutes of work it was all fixed up. It wasn’t due to contacting customer support, but replacement parts were readily available.
Just ordered a second Ultimate 2c just in case on this news. Was considering the Ultimate 2 for gyro support but 8bitdo’s offering there is confusing and it’s unclear if it would actually work with my Steam Deck (apparently gyro only works in Switch mode?).
Correct, you will need to pair as a Switch controller (or usb dongle) for the Steam Deck to be able to see the gyro . I find I use the gyro less since it doesn’t have the capacitive thumpsticks for triggering gyro input.
Help, I can’t tell the difference between the different varieties. Between the “Ultimate 2 Bluetooth Controller” and the “Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller,” which one do I want for gaming on Linux (both Steam on my desktop and RetroPie on my Raspberry Pi)? Or which do I want between the “2C Bluetooth” and “2C Wireless,” for that matter?
(Damn it, 8bitdo, would it kill you to put a fucking comparison matrix on your website‽)
I can’t tell the difference between the different varieties. Between the “Ultimate 2 Bluetooth Controller” and the “Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller,”
The wireless controller uses a wireless USB dongle for connectivity, which supposedly has way less input delay than standard bluetooth. I couldn’t comment on that personally tho cause I have an older one which is Bluetooth and works fine for me
But both models say they have Bluetooth, wired, and 2.4Ghz connectivity. They both include a USB-C 2.4Ghz dongle, and both explicitly call out Bluetooth as a way to connect to certain devices, so must both have transmitters for that, too. The “Wireless” version calls its wireless protocol “8Speed” and lists its low latency as a feature, but the “Bluetooth” product page doesn’t say anything that would imply its non-bluetooth wireless is different. It merely doesn’t discuss it.
The only real hardware differences I’ve been able to discern so far are that:
the “Ultimate 2 Wireless” version shows colored labels on the ABXY buttons, while on the “Ultimate 2 Bluetooth” version the labels appear to be white.
the “Ultimate 2 Wireless” comes in black, white, and purple while the “Bluetooth” version only comes in black and white.
the “Ultimate 2C Wireless” comes in mint, peach, green, and purple while the “2C Wireless” version comes in blue, pink, and dark blue.
Sometimes they have hall effect sticks, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they have back paddles, sometimes they have extra bumpers instead. Which is which? no clue
The only difference I could find is that the bluetooth one is officially switch compatible and the other one isn’t. I have the old wireless one with hall effect sticks and had no issues with it on pc, android or steamdeck.
Am I wrong or do the 8BitDo controllers almost all have inbuilt batteries of unusual capacities?
They could just build them to use standard AAA or AA rechargeables, but instead they do proprietary batteries which 8BitDo happily sell replacements for - sure seems like a path to more e-waste.
This sucks for Canadians as well. I have a feeling 8bit ships all stock to the USA first then ships it by truck North and South from a distribution center. This means import fees are paid at the port of entry.
Not sure if demand is high enough for 8bit to ship directly to Canada or even have a warehouse in Canada TBH.
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My 8bitdo story, back when they’re we’re just starting to put joysticks on their SNES style controllers, I used mine to the point that the joysticks were falling apart. I sent them a support email, and even though it wasn’t covered by any warranty or anything, a very nice Chinese person working there sent me a spare set of joysticks in the mail, plus words of encouragement (in somewhat broken English) since I wasn’t shy about fixing the thing myself.
Can’t imagine that today, but it was a nice gesture and I’m glad they’re still making stuff today.
The worst part about growing companies are the almost impossible ways for those small interactions.
Yep. I just bought an 8bitdo controller a few weeks ago with a defective RB button. I asked support if there was anything I could do to reseat it or replace a membrane to fix it. Support said either take it back to where I bought it or ship it to them in China to get fixed on my dime. That left a bad taste in my mouth for their products.
To be fair: They are probably not working with a lot of margin and shipping it bavk to china is costly for them.
If I buy on AliExpress I am under the impression of it either fits or needs to be trashed. But returning is very unlikely.
And 8bitdo is (when not being sold by a 3rd party like for example microcenter) just another chinese seller/manufacturer on AliExpress or Amazon^(which is just a chinese shipping proxy with some local sellers nowadays)
My joystick broke on my Ultimate controller. It could have been my fault or it could’ve been when I was traveling for work or the two year-old. Either way, I managed to take the front cover off and look at the joysticks and order a new set from AliExpress. Less than four dollars later and 20 minutes of work it was all fixed up. It wasn’t due to contacting customer support, but replacement parts were readily available.
That’s the line. The line is crossed. Time to riot.
Dude…the line was crossed like 7 years ago when ICE agents just started raiding innocent peoples homes, and kidnapping them in unmarked vans.
THIS is so far past the line we csn’t even see the line. The line is a dot from here.
No, the line is when you interfere with muh Capitalism. /s
Whoooooosh
Mannnnn that sucks. 8BitDo has some of the best 3rd party controllers :(
Just ordered a second Ultimate 2c just in case on this news. Was considering the Ultimate 2 for gyro support but 8bitdo’s offering there is confusing and it’s unclear if it would actually work with my Steam Deck (apparently gyro only works in Switch mode?).
Correct, you will need to pair as a Switch controller (or usb dongle) for the Steam Deck to be able to see the gyro . I find I use the gyro less since it doesn’t have the capacitive thumpsticks for triggering gyro input.
If you thought of getting one do it now before they go on eBay for $100 each
Just got a purple 2 last week. 🥹
The best gamepads. It’ll be a wasteland again once again once stock runs out
Gamesir seems to be vying for that crown of late - their price to feature ratio is impressive.
Edit: Yes, they’ll face the same tariff pressures - I’m just noting that 8BitDo isn’t the clear market leader the way they were 3-5 years ago.
Ahh ya gamesir. I have a gamesir gamepad for my phone. Really good. They’ll have trouble with tariffs pricing too though
i picked up a gamesir g3s like 10 years ago and it still works pretty good. i need to replace the thumb pads, but other than that it’s in good shape.
https://gamesir.com/pages/brand-story
I would assume that GameSir would also be affected by tariffs on China if 8bitdo is.
I wonder what this will mean for the Analogue 3D controllers. They delayed shipment back when Analogue pushed out the shipping date.
Help, I can’t tell the difference between the different varieties. Between the “Ultimate 2 Bluetooth Controller” and the “Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller,” which one do I want for gaming on Linux (both Steam on my desktop and RetroPie on my Raspberry Pi)? Or which do I want between the “2C Bluetooth” and “2C Wireless,” for that matter?
(Damn it, 8bitdo, would it kill you to put a fucking comparison matrix on your website‽)
The wireless controller uses a wireless USB dongle for connectivity, which supposedly has way less input delay than standard bluetooth. I couldn’t comment on that personally tho cause I have an older one which is Bluetooth and works fine for me
But both models say they have Bluetooth, wired, and 2.4Ghz connectivity. They both include a USB-C 2.4Ghz dongle, and both explicitly call out Bluetooth as a way to connect to certain devices, so must both have transmitters for that, too. The “Wireless” version calls its wireless protocol “8Speed” and lists its low latency as a feature, but the “Bluetooth” product page doesn’t say anything that would imply its non-bluetooth wireless is different. It merely doesn’t discuss it.
The only real hardware differences I’ve been able to discern so far are that:
It looks like they’re each compatible with different devices maybe
I have 2C wireless and there is no Bluetooth to be found.
Sometimes they have hall effect sticks, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they have back paddles, sometimes they have extra bumpers instead. Which is which? no clue
The only difference I could find is that the bluetooth one is officially switch compatible and the other one isn’t. I have the old wireless one with hall effect sticks and had no issues with it on pc, android or steamdeck.
Good for them
Am I wrong or do the 8BitDo controllers almost all have inbuilt batteries of unusual capacities? They could just build them to use standard AAA or AA rechargeables, but instead they do proprietary batteries which 8BitDo happily sell replacements for - sure seems like a path to more e-waste.
That’s why the last one I bought was the 8bitdo pro 2. I love my rechargeable AA batteries
FUCK, I use 8bitdo for Anki bro. It’s a study tool, not just for gaming.
I mean I completely understand.
So does that mean we’re going to see Coyotes snuggling equipment over the border now?
Awww!
Well it is cramped in that van after all.
I have a minature gamepad for my daughter’s tiny hands, but my favourite product is actually their mechanical keyboard.
This sucks for Canadians as well. I have a feeling 8bit ships all stock to the USA first then ships it by truck North and South from a distribution center. This means import fees are paid at the port of entry.
Not sure if demand is high enough for 8bit to ship directly to Canada or even have a warehouse in Canada TBH.
I’d think canada is big enough market for that
There are dozens of us!
Nope, 8bitdo (via their eshop) ships directly from China to Canada, alongside a number of other countries.
The change is only wrt shipping to US.
Just bought one in Canada a week ago, it came in through Vancouver, like pretty much everything else does.
Awesome thanks for the confirmation