Microsoft’s latest sustainability effort is in the form of a new Xbox controller with earth-tone colors
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Microsoft announced the new “Remix Special Edition” of its Xbox controller made of recycled materials. It is now available for preorder worldwide for USD 84.99 MSRP and is expected to release on April 18. The Redmond company stressed it is part of its sustainability efforts, which includes “exploring ways to use less new plastic and reduce waste.” The announcement came weeks before Earth Day, which is on April 22.
“To celebrate this year, we’ve created an Xbox controller that features recovered plastics with one-third of it made from regrind and reclaimed materials,” wrote Daniel Ruiz, Senior Marketing Manager at Xbox Accessories, in a blog post. “Mixing post-consumer recycled resins with regrind consisting of previously molded colored parts creates custom, earth-tone colors with subtle variations, swirling, markings, and texturing – giving each Remix Special Edition controller its own look and feel.”
The materials give the new controller earth-tone colors, making it distinctive from Xbox’s previous controller designs and somewhat more interesting. And aside from these colors resembling earth, the company even added some textures and patterns to some parts of the hardware. According to Microsoft, all of these were inspired by the physical world, such as the Pacific Northwest Forest’s lichen and the earth’s dynamic landscape.
Meanwhile, despite the use of recycled materials, Xbox ensures the quality of the controller’s performance in terms of tactility and battery life. In the package comes the controller’s Rechargeable Battery Pack with up to 30 hours of battery life per charge.
The Remix Special Edition continues Microsoft’s sustainability efforts across its ecosystem of products and services. In 2022, the company announced its plan to be a “carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste company by 2030.” At that time, Microsoft underlined some of the eco-friendly features of its consoles, including the improvements made in its Energy Saver sleep mode and the incorporation of Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) resins in various internal components of Xbox Series S.
