When designing the Xbox One controller, Microsoft was going for a device that hardcore gamers would love, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t get a bit wacky with its early designs for the peripheral.
“We had a whole bunch of brainstorm sessions and built hundreds of models,” Xbox general manager for accessories Zulfi Alam told GamesBeat. “We looked at concepts like adding displays to the controller. We looked at concepts like adding smell.”
The Xbox peripheral team used 3D printing and quick manufacturing techniques to actually build working models of a lot of these concepts. This iteration process enabled it to take something crazy — like a controller that makes different stinks –and turn it into a reality.
“We built small slugs of different types of smells that could actually come out of a controller,” said Alam. “Like, as you walked through a jungle, you’d smell the flora.”
Or maybe as you walk into the bathroom in a bar in Grand Theft Auto, you would smell — well, you get the idea.
(via VentureBeat)