Let me start off by saying that I enjoy gaming on PC. Due to its open nature, it offers many experiences not found in the console space. In fact, some of the best experiences I've had this year have been on pc. Now despite this, it's unnecessarily cumbersome and I feel like the majority of the blame rests at the feet of Microsoft.
Yesterday, on my way home from work, I stopped by the store and purchased an Xbox one controller to use on my PC. I was excited to get a "plug and play" solution to my controller issue. One would assume that a controller made for their eco system would "just work". Unfortunately, that's not the case. I attempted to connect the controller to my pc via Bluetooth and it would just not connect. Looking through event viewer, I was able to get the full error message which was not displayed in the settings menu. This led to me wasting almost an hour scouring through forum posts to find a solution that never materialized. After reading and trying the terrible suggestions by the Microsoft support team, I got tired and decided to take a nap. I woke up about an hour or two later and continued to troubleshoot the problem. This led to me into device manager where I attempted to delete and reinstall the Bluetooth drivers. Of course, as expected, this didn't resolve the issue. Rolling back the drivers also failed to resolve the issue. Finally, after spending more time scouring the web, I was able to find different versions of the Bluetooth driver. I snagged the on that was released with the anniversary update and installed it through device manager. This seemed to do the trick and I was able to pair the controller with my PC. Success right? Wrong. My short-lived jubilation was replaced by a feeling of annoyance once I started playing games. I noticed a minimum of 10fps performance hit when connecting the controller via Bluetooth. Furthermore, I got random dips that would tank my fps which affected my enjoyment of the game. Once I switched to wired mode, those dips and frame rate hitches where gone. I was left with a feeling of amazement. Something as simple as connecting a controller can cause fps losses? Truly a new low for Microsoft.
Microsoft really need to learn from Apple when it comes to creating an ecosystem. Your products should just work in your ecosystem. No fiddling around, no temperamental issues, nothing. I spent at least 2 hours trying to resolve an issue that simply does not exist in the console space. Those 2 hours could have been better spent playing a game. Microsoft really need to do improve. They seem to do things half-heartedly to the detriment of the platform. An example of this is the terrible windows store. Anyway, that was my terrible experience yesterday that I felt the need to share.
Yesterday, on my way home from work, I stopped by the store and purchased an Xbox one controller to use on my PC. I was excited to get a "plug and play" solution to my controller issue. One would assume that a controller made for their eco system would "just work". Unfortunately, that's not the case. I attempted to connect the controller to my pc via Bluetooth and it would just not connect. Looking through event viewer, I was able to get the full error message which was not displayed in the settings menu. This led to me wasting almost an hour scouring through forum posts to find a solution that never materialized. After reading and trying the terrible suggestions by the Microsoft support team, I got tired and decided to take a nap. I woke up about an hour or two later and continued to troubleshoot the problem. This led to me into device manager where I attempted to delete and reinstall the Bluetooth drivers. Of course, as expected, this didn't resolve the issue. Rolling back the drivers also failed to resolve the issue. Finally, after spending more time scouring the web, I was able to find different versions of the Bluetooth driver. I snagged the on that was released with the anniversary update and installed it through device manager. This seemed to do the trick and I was able to pair the controller with my PC. Success right? Wrong. My short-lived jubilation was replaced by a feeling of annoyance once I started playing games. I noticed a minimum of 10fps performance hit when connecting the controller via Bluetooth. Furthermore, I got random dips that would tank my fps which affected my enjoyment of the game. Once I switched to wired mode, those dips and frame rate hitches where gone. I was left with a feeling of amazement. Something as simple as connecting a controller can cause fps losses? Truly a new low for Microsoft.
Microsoft really need to learn from Apple when it comes to creating an ecosystem. Your products should just work in your ecosystem. No fiddling around, no temperamental issues, nothing. I spent at least 2 hours trying to resolve an issue that simply does not exist in the console space. Those 2 hours could have been better spent playing a game. Microsoft really need to do improve. They seem to do things half-heartedly to the detriment of the platform. An example of this is the terrible windows store. Anyway, that was my terrible experience yesterday that I felt the need to share.
