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Xbox Adaptive Controller arrives in South Africa for R1999

In May of 2018 Microsoft unveiled the Xbox Adaptive Controller – a specialised input platform that allowed those with limited mobility to customise their controller experience to suit their needs. This controller has been available for some time in other countries, but it has finally arrived in South Africa.

Local online retailer Raru has just listed the controller for R1 999. How does that compare against international pricing? The RRP of the Adaptive Controller is $99 when bought directly from Microsoft.

At the time of writing $99 converts to R1 454. While it may seem that Raru is adding on a few hundred rand out of nowhere, the price we’re paying is more nuanced than that. It’s worth remembering that US RRP prices sometimes do not include VAT, and the Adaptive Controller is much bigger than a standard gamepad, which means that you’d shell out a lot more if you had to personally import it yourself.

Because of these factors the R1 999 price tag here is not too bad, especially for what you’re getting.

While the local price for the product is fair, it must be remembered that the Adaptive Controller is not a complete system on its own. It’s made to connect to various other kinds of speciality controllers and input methods by way of its 3.5mm jacks and USB ports.

Buying the extra components to suit your needs and required play style is where the real costs will stack up, we imagine. We’re not sure what the local market for accessibility-friendly gaming hardware is, but we imagine it can’t be cheap.

You can see for simple buttons attached to the back of the controller in the header image above. Things like this would need to be purchased seperatiely.

You can see more of how this system works and the accessories required here:

We also have to give a prerequisite “warning” about Raru. In recent months we’ve heard many complaints about the service of the company, and it’s something we’ve experienced first hand when, weeks after we paid for an expensive product in full, they cancelled our order and refused to honour the sale.

Raru is, however, the only large retailer we can find right now that is stocking the Adaptive Controller for sale.

BT Games has it listed for pre-order (at the slightly cheaper price of R1 899), but no release date is provided save for “2020”. If you want to order this product right now, Raru looks like your only option.

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