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Knowledge-based discourse

Performative Indignation for Pro Controller 2

The Japanese and Chinese teardowns of Pro Controller 2 that I saw didn’t deem it hard to repair. Was iFixit’s exceedingly negative review due to skill issue, or deliberate rage-baiting? Let’s check the receipts:

For Microsoft, iFixit wrote: “Xbox controllers require careful prying […] Replacing [the sticks] require some soldering. Fortunately, learning how to solder isn’t hard […] it can actually be an empowering experience.” → If you really think about it, MS controller repair ain’t hard … It’s empowering! (iFixit is an official Microsoft partner)

“Xbox controllers require careful prying to access the internal components. Use steady force and take your time to avoid frustration.”
“Replacing one of the components connected to the board will, however, require some soldering. This includes the sticks, arguably one of the most common controller repairs.”
“Fortunately, learning how to solder isn't hard as long as you have the right information to guide you!”
“fixing your Xbox console or controller doesn't have to be an overwhelming task, it can actually be an empowering experience.”

For PlayStation, iFixit complained about the potentiometer stick per usual, however in a notably more civil tone. Then came the whiplash: “Despite the poor design choice on the thumbsticks, I think it’s important that we acknowledge what Sony did right.” → I wasn’t serious LOL. Let’s all be nice to Sony Interactive Entertainment!

“Despite the poor design choice on the thumbsticks, I think it's important that we acknowledge what Sony did right.”

Both PS and XB sticks are soldered to the board (but not in Pro Con 2), and XB Elite also uses glue (not to mention all modern phones). Why didn’t iFixit call them “p**s-poor” and “nightmare”? The stark difference in the languages iFixit chose to describe them demonstrates that their outrage was selective and performative.

[Sidebar]

  • There are Alps Alpine patents indicating that they re-engineered potentiometer sticks to resist drift.
  • SIE tried Hall Effect with DualShock 3 but went back to potentiometer for DualShock 4; they surely know something that iFixit doesn’t.
  • Some may be incentivized to willfully conflate them, but Right to Repair doesn’t mean Ease of Repair.

iFixit isn’t the only outlet casting aspersions. Just recently Sean Hollister of The Verge went on a fishing expedition accusing that Nintendo “locks down” the USB-C port, even though compatible products and firmware updates already existed for weeks. I, for one, posted about them on June 18 and 20.

When facts inconveniently contradicted Hollister, with a sleight of hand he swapped the disproven allegation with a fresh one: “we don’t know if Nintendo will move to block these accessories with firmware updates […] lead to a game of cat-and-mouse”—something they did not do in NS1’s 8+ years.

“But we don't know if Nintendo will move to block these accessories with firmware updates of its own.”
“several manufacturers admit that could lead to a game of cat-and-mouse where they have to issue new firmware updates”

Even Jeff Gerstmann, typically a thinking person, after the initial reveal of Echoes of Wisdom, was somehow compelled to suggest that Zelda didn’t have a sword (in the game’s trailer) because Aonuma thought “well, she’s a girl”.

“The way they frame thet up in the traller is a Iittle weird, because it’s just like, well, it’s like they practically might as well be saying like, well she’s a girl so I don’t know. They give her a magic rod.”

And in a MinnMax stream, Ben Hanson visibly strained to invent a nefarious conspiracy behind Nintendo’s protection of developer identities, and failed to vocalize anything approaching coherency.

“best I figure if you want to be a greedy corporation trying to think of how …”
“… is totally conceivable, right? Is that the greedy layer to this?”

This is not to single out these outlets (just examples), but to ponder what lies beneath our cultural climate that emboldens certain media and audience to throw suspicions and contempts against those cultivating and acting on a decidedly nonwestern worldview. (E.g., Hideki Kamiya’s Bayonetta 3 “controversy”)

[Originally posted on 2025-07-15 Pacific Time]