Apple starts selling Microsoft's Xbox Wireless Controller on its online store for the first time
Apple has added the Xbox Wireless Controller to Apple.com, although the accessory is currently unavailable to purchase at the time of writing. Apple sells a few different gaming controllers …
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple putting Microsoft's Xbox Wireless Controller on Apple.com caps a slow reversal in how each company treats the other's hardware. In 2015 the answer to 'which controller works with an Apple TV' was a third-party accessory — the $50 SteelSeries Nimbus sold as an add-on at checkout — while Microsoft kept Xbox Wireless to itself until it opened the technology to PC OEMs and peripheral makers in 2016.
What changed since then is that both companies stopped treating controller support as a walled-garden feature: Apple worked with Microsoft on Series X controller support in 2020 and later extended iOS 16 support to Nintendo's Joy-Cons and Pro Controller alongside PlayStation 5 and Xbox pads. Listing Microsoft's controller for sale in Apple's own store turns that compatibility work into retail shelf space.
First-order effects
- Microsoft gains a direct sales channel inside Apple.com, putting its controller next to Apple's own devices at the moment of purchase rather than behind a third-party accessories search.
Second-order effects
- Third-party MFi controller makers like SteelSeries lose their differentiation: when Apple retails the first-party console pad itself, the Nimbus-style add-on slot they occupied since the Apple TV era shrinks.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, controller compatibility stops being a platform moat — Apple competes on services and device experience while commoditizing input hardware from every console maker, and Microsoft treats controllers as a distribution asset for its ecosystem rather than a locked peripheral.
The trend: Console makers' controllers are shifting from proprietary lock-in to open, cross-platform commodities that even rival storefronts stock.