00:02Hi, è Larry here of Xbox Live's Major Nelson.
00:04I'm here with Brandon Powell from the Accessories Team.
00:06Brandon, welcome.
00:07Thank you.
00:07I want to talk to you about what your team does
00:09before we kind of get into the cool stuff sitting in front of us.
00:11You guys work with all of our third-party accessory manufacturers, right?
00:14Yep.
00:15We run the partner development program for Xbox,
00:17helping our partners bring great products to the platform.
00:19Now, what have you and your team done working with the platform
00:22to really innovate in this space?
00:25Yeah, to enable great accessories,
00:27we worked closely with the console development team
00:30to ensure that we had all the building blocks needed to make this great.
00:33First is, it's the first real innovation in force feedback.
00:36We're really excited about that.
00:37Really, force feedback's been done, you know, for over 15 years
00:40in pretty much the same way across the industry.
00:43What we've been able to do is work to build an entirely new way.
00:46Previously, you used to have some canned forces
00:49that a developer could push down to the device
00:51to try to simulate the feeling that they wanted.
00:53What we've done is we've developed a new way of doing that
00:55using an equation language.
00:57What that does is it means that a developer can push down things like RPM or ABS
01:02and the equation language will do the right thing
01:04and create those forces for them.
01:05It also gives them flexibility to define their own building blocks.
01:09It really delivers a level of precision that we just haven't had before.
01:11Now, how would some of these new features enable accessories
01:13for different experiences and other kinds of games?
01:16It used to be that hardware had to fit into predefined categories,
01:20so you had things like controllers and racing wheels and so on.
01:23What we've done is we've created a new level of modularity in the platform.
01:27So think about things like fight sticks.
01:28A lot of fight sticks these days are customizable.
01:30You can actually move where the buttons are physically located.
01:33We can now communicate that directly up to the platform
01:35so that your favorite configuration is communicated to the game
01:39and you get to play the way that you want to play.
01:41So it's not just button remapping.
01:43There's something else going on there.
01:44So yeah, in addition, we have, going back to that modularity point,
01:48there's additional components can be added over time.
01:50So think about on your racing wheel, you can add things like different shifter configurations.
01:54You can add different pedal types.
01:55You can add things like gauges.
01:57So think about your RPM gauge or your speedometer or things like that.
02:00One of the things that gamers are concerned with is controller pairing.
02:03How does that work with, like, for instance, with these devices?
02:06If you don't know what controller pairing is, controller pairing is connect,
02:09being able to see the hardware and mapping the right hardware to the right player.
02:13So when I'm taking my turn, when I'm done, I slide the wheel over,
02:16you get behind it, and now it immediately maps the right controller to the right person.
02:20Seamless, it just works.
02:21Now, you brought a couple of wheels here today, so let's dive in here and take a look.
02:24Explain what we have in front of us.
02:25Yeah, let's start with the Thrustmaster 458 Italia.
02:28A couple of things going on here.
02:29Number one, clearly, it's a one-to-one mapping of that classic 458 Italia wheel,
02:34which fans just love.
02:35It's got sequential gear shifters, has metal pedals.
02:38This is a fantastic wheel.
02:39It also has brushless motors, which, one, means it's very quiet,
02:43so you really feel the precision of the force feedback in it.
02:46And two, it consumes a lot less power,
02:48so the power supply is actually embedded inside, so you have a very small cable.
02:52All right, and over here, Brandon, we have the Mad Cat's wheel.
02:54Yeah, if you look at the Mad Cat's wheel, a couple of things you can see right away.
02:57Number one, the very small size, you can start to get a sense of that modularity that we talked about.
03:02This wheel you can buy in a bunch of different configurations,
03:04so you get the configuration that's right for you, and you can add on over time.
03:07The wheel is swappable, so when you want to do F1 racing or GT racing,
03:11whatever your favorite racing style is, you're going to be able to buy wheels
03:14that map to that style that you're saying, you plug right in.
03:16Instead of a whole new unit, you just buy the wheel itself.
03:18Exactly, so you make that initial investment,
03:19and then just add the pieces you want over time.
03:21And when you look at the pedal set, it actually looks like a cockpit.
03:24It has a level of adjustability that we haven't seen in pedals before.
03:27You can actually adjust the width between the pedals,
03:29you can adjust the pedal throw, you can change out springs
03:32for the amount of dampening that it gives for the actual resistance.
03:36It feels fantastic. We're really excited.
03:38Now, these are some serious kit, but I've seen a lot of questions
03:40about Xbox 360 wheels and Xbox One.
03:43These are just for Xbox One.
03:44That's correct.
03:44What's the story with Xbox 360 wheels working with Xbox One?
03:48Yeah, we started at the top talking about the level of innovation
03:51that we've done in this platform, and with that level of innovation
03:54means some things aren't going to function going forward.
03:57When we think about things like the controller pairing
04:00and we think about the level of force feedback changes,
04:02unfortunately, the Xbox 360 wheels are not compatible with Xbox One,
04:07but the level of definition and performance that you got out of the Xbox One wheels is amazing.
04:12Brandon, are there any other accessories that racing fans should know about?
04:15Beyond the racing wheels themselves, we also have the Polk N1 soundbar coming out this fall.
04:20It actually has a Forza racing mode specifically designed with the Forza audio engineering team
04:25to really put you at the center of the action and highlight where those sounds should be on racing experiences.
04:31So when you're playing Forza and other great racing games,
04:34you're really going to feel like you're in that car, in that race, having that experience.
04:38What are you and the team most proud of?
04:40I'd say the level of flexibility in the system.
04:43We've now given hardware developers the ability to do things they've never been able to do before.
04:47That helps put the driver at the center of the experience
04:50and is going to enable the best racing of any platform.
04:53So this is just the beginning of the accessory stories on Xbox One, right?
04:56We've got a lot more to come.
04:58Great. Thank you very much, Brandon.
05:01We've got a lot more to come.
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