One of Xbox's biggest successes of the Xbox One generation of consoles was the launch of its Xbox Design Lab. The Xbox Design Lab allowed Xbox fans to fully customize an Xbox controller's coloring. With the onset of the Xbox Series generation of consoles, the Xbox Design Lab was taken down in preparation for a new line of controllers. About half a year later, Xbox is now ready to start the Xbox Design Lab back up. PC and Xbox gamers can now customize their very own Xbox Series X/X controller.
Orders for a custom Xbox Series X/S controller can be placed starting today, with orders targeted to be delivered within 28 days of being ordered. There's only one style of Xbox Series X/S controller to be customized and only coloring, including buttons, can be altered. That means there's no Elite version of the controller and there are no different options for button textures, joystick shapes, or otherwise. The customizations are purely limited to coloring.
The coloring options that Xbox offers players are robust, however. Eight different areas of the Xbox controller can each be customized with a different coloring option. The controller's body, back, bumpers, triggers, d-pad, and thumbstick each have eighteen different color options available to choose from. After that, the controller's ABXY buttons have six options, including shades of white-to-black and more typical coloring, and the View/Menu/Share buttons also have five options of white-to-black shading.
A customized controller made through the Xbox Design Lab will cost players a not insignificant price of $69.99. That's $10 more than a standard black or white Xbox Series X/S controller costs, $5 more than Xbox's single-color red, blue, and yellow controllers, and the same price as its uniquely patterned controllers like the Daystrike Camo Special Edition. The Xbox Design Lab also allows buyers to add their own engraving to their controller, which costs an additional $10.
Just for fun, Xbox has also pre-customized a couple of controllers based on some of its games. There's a special Psychonauts 2 customization available, as well as a special Grounded customization. These controllers cost the same as any other Xbox Design Lab creation but do have an "official" flair to them that fans might appreciate.
While Xbox hasn't made any announcements regarding additional customizations being made in the future, it did introduce additional options for the Xbox One controller over the years. For example, there were several metallic finishes for the Xbox One d-pad that aren't currently available for the Xbox Series X/S controller. In other words, if folks were hoping for more options, it might be worth checking back on the Xbox Design Lab in a year or two to see what's changed.
The Xbox Design Lab is open for customized Xbox Series X/S controllers starting today.