jesus your being an ass, the "Offical" xbox360 controller for windows costs $70 and all you get is a wireless 360 controller and the wireless PC receiver, on top of that M$ stopped manufacturing the stand alone receiver years ago so even if you HAVE a 360 (I do, and 3 controllers) you will still need to go out and buy the $70 kit.

additionally, "controllers" in general (outside of the motion-swoosh bits that have no functionality on the PC) have not made a single evolutionary upgrade since 2006 when wireless started becoming the standard. everything is just a modification on the PS2 layout, and as such my 8 year old gamepad still provides the exact same functionality of a 360 controller that was manufactured yesterday.

on top of which, as the link I provided demonstrates, emulating Direct input in Xinput is so easy that M$ had to have intentionally neglected it for it to not be a standard feature.

Facepalm. Microsoft are not doing that. They are standardizing the set of APIs available in DirectX.

There is a difference between 'their pads' and 'pads based on xInput.

Just like they removed DirectPlay switching to Live.

Or, you can just buy yourself a third party controller that uses current gen technology, and not some old stuff that was popular during the days of DirectX 8.

I've only seen one other gamepad that uses Xinput natively - the knockoff Logitech one.

Why is that, I wonder? Why restrict what devs can use in their games? Hm...

Razer also makes xInput controllers, and I don't doubt other companies also make similar devices.

Microsoft aren't restricting developers, DirectInput is currently marked obsolete, because it is, well, obsolete. It is old, and it hasn't received a major update since DirectX. They provide the xInput APIs, which are free to all developers that want to use them.

If the developers don't want to use them, they can skip them very easily. But think of the additional work that would be required to get the same compatibility level.

or I could just keep on using the gamepad I already own, that does the exact same thing, has the exact same physical appearance, and costs me nothing.

That's what I was getting at - some of these games have been designed to derail keyboard mapping so that you can't map your game pad rendering the game unusable with a game pad.

Okay, but don't blame devs the next time it doesn't work with a particular game.

I don't have to: the community at large has already developed a DirectInput -> Xinput emulator that offers better layout adjustment than the default API or any in game input options I have ever seen.

I will however get plenty pissed at shit like THQ locking out the game controls simply because I have a speed pad or a joystick installed (not "connected" ... IN-fucking-STALLED, I didn't even have the damned thing plugged in).

This is the whole thing that I'm complaining about - some games subvert keyboard mapping so that key board mapping is not possible.
It's not requiring NEW technology - it's requiring M$ ONLY technology.
So you're saying that if I run out and get a new Logitech (the one I have now I purchased less than two years ago) it will be compatible with all these games pre-programmed for the 360 game pad?

Dude, do you even know what the fuck xInput is? Or how it eases the work that devs need to do to achieve a good level of compatibility with wide range of controllers?

Nobody is limiting devs to use xInput, but I don't think any sane dev would try to create his own stuff, and not use what is already provided and works pretty good.
It doesn't matter if you purchased it two years ago, yesterday, or tomorrow. What matters is what technology it is based upon. Do some research next time before buying stuff.

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It is like saying DirectX is bad... I'm pretty sure nobody would like to go to the days before DirectX, where you would have to write code specific to every different model of every GPU, controller, whatever out there.

Not really, I am being confronted by FUD like you just posted and have to respond accordingly. He implied there isn't a reason to own a 360 controller without a 360, which is bollocks.

Wired one works better than anything else and can be had for as low as $20. Got mine on amazon for $20.

No matter how old my year-and-a-half old controller made by a garage company no one has ever heard of before like Logitech is - I could get the controller to work if developers stop encrypting Game Pad Configure ini's and hiding game launch executables.

My own personal "Fuck You" to Microsofts attempts to force me to buy a controller I didnt want, I bought this instead for XInput games. Supports both DirectInput and XInput.

Has performed for me very nicely :)