In anticipation of their upcoming wedding, a gamer had custom Xbox controllers made for their groomsmen. These Xbox controllers were made and designed using the Xbox Design Lab service that allows players to mix and match different colors, materials, and features to make a fully personalized controller.
Xbox Design Lab launched during the first few years of the Xbox One as a way to give Xbox fans the ultimate customization options for their controllers. It temporarily went down in 2020 and was updated to support Xbox Series X/S controllers. It was once again updated earlier this year to support the latest Xbox Elite controllers, the premium controller option for Xbox players.
This service made it possible for a gamer on the Xbox Series X subreddit to make custom Xbox controllers for each of their groomsmen as well as some of their relatives. This user, who goes by the username Niven5111, explained in a comment that they sent a questionnaire to each controller recipient asking what colors they would prefer. This falls in a similar line to other Xbox Design Lab controllers shown on the subreddit with gamers making controllers based on the interests of their family members.
Each controller came paired with personalized controller stands, purchased from Etsy, inscribed with the names of the happy couple and the date of their wedding. Some controllers shown even had the names of their owners, made possible as one of Xbox Design Lab's features allows gamers to get text engraved into the bottom of their controllers
Xbox Design Lab helps set the Xbox brand apart by giving gamers a great number of options when it comes to providing custom controllers, something previously only possible for those willing to mod their controllers. Rather than only being limited to official special edition controllers, this service helps Xbox and PC gamers create controller designs based on their favorite games, even for franchises not playable on Xbox consoles.
This level of customization has yet to be embraced by PlayStation or Nintendo, the other major players in the console market. Sony did recently take a note from the Xbox playbook by revealing a premium controller for the PS5: the DualSense Edge, which is essentially Sony's answer to the Xbox Elite line of controllers. While it seems unlikely that it will be possible to get high levels of customization with PlayStation or Nintendo controllers, the popularity of Xbox Design Lab shows there is a large market for proprietary personalized controllers.