Improved XBox 360 Controller Confirmed and Dated

[Takavach]

The Xbox 360 controller d-pad has long been cited as the number one reason to buy Bionic Commando: Rearmed on the PlayStation 3. Now, 360 owners are finally getting the remedy they've been waiting for. It's a bitter one though.

Eurogamer reports that a new controller that can register 32 directions of input through the d-pad made it onto the Games Convention show floor via a Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 kiosk, the game for which it is being specifically developed. Microsoft confirmed that the new controller will indeed be released on October 24, but the news gets sour for North Americans after that.

As apparent punishment for North America's general lack of interest in the beautiful game, the new controller will be a "limited edition promotional item that is only available in Europe, Asia and Latin America while supplies last." Brazilians, you may commence crowing. For the rest of us unlucky enough to be stuck in the northern portion of the New World, there's always eBay, right? But if a third-party publisher that Eurogamer spoke with is right, the new and improved controller may just turn up with the console edition of a certain Capcom fighting game.

So what will it be, 360 owners? Will you suck it up and import it now, or will you play the waiting game and see if it turns up with Street Fighter 4? More PlayStation 3 News...

[sibbor]

How many directions can the current X360 controller register? And Sony's Sixaxis/DualShock 3 controllers?

[Dark Horizon]

So instead of addressing the actual problem people had with the 360's pad (the 1 piece disc) they, instead, fixed a problem nobody had? Seems less like NA getting left out in the cold and more like milking Europe, Asia and Latin America for more money on an unneeded controller "upgrade".