8BitDo’s Ultimate 3C+ Wired Brings TMR Sticks to Xbox for $39.99

The Ultimate 3C+ on my desk has one big gap if you own an Xbox: it doesn’t work with one. It’s a controller for PC and Android. Now 8BitDo has announced the Ultimate 3C+ Wired for Xbox, with the same adjustable sticks and a cable hanging off the top. Here’s the odd part. It costs $39.99, exactly what the wireless one costs. Same money. One cable.

How much is the 8BitDo Ultimate 3C+ Wired, and when does it ship?

Forty bucks, give or take a penny, and it ships on November 16. You can pre-order right now from 8BitDo’s own store wherever you live, or through Amazon if you’re in the US. Then you pick grey or green. That’s the whole menu.

Why pay the same for a controller with a cable?

Because this is the one that plugs into an Xbox. The wireless 3C+ lists Windows and Android and nothing else. This one carries an official Xbox license, and it has the Xbox button in the middle to prove it.

8BitDo does sell Xbox controllers with no cable. The Ultimate 3 for Xbox has TMR sticks too and runs wireless on the console, but it’s $99.99. That’s $60 more.

The good stuff carried over. TMR sticks read their position with a magnetic sensor, the same idea as Hall effect, so there’s no physical contact to wear down. You can adjust how firm they feel. The triggers flip between a full analog pull and a short click. You get L4 and R4 beside the regular bumpers, which you can remap on the controller itself, and two back buttons with a switch that locks them out when they’d only get in the way.

What do you give up compared with the wireless 3C+?

Turbo and a published polling rate, on top of the wireless itself. The wireless 3C+ is rated at 1000Hz, meaning it reports to the PC 1,000 times a second, over both its adapter and its cable. The spec sheet for the Xbox version gives no number at all, and turbo isn’t on its feature list. That’s a question for whoever gets one on a tester first.

The little cardboard stand didn’t make the trip, either.

In exchange you get a 3.5 mm jack, for plugging headphones straight into the controller on an Xbox or a Windows PC. There’s a 2.5 m cable in the box, so you can sit a fair distance from the console. And the rumble gets a chip of its own on this model, built to stop the buzz quickly instead of letting it ring on. The wireless 3C+ rumbles too, but that chip isn’t on its spec sheet.

Does it work on Switch or Android?

No. 8BitDo lists Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Windows 10 and later. That’s the list. Android was on the wireless model’s list and it’s gone from this one. If you want a 3C+ for an Android handheld, the wireless model is the one to buy.

How is it different from the Ultimate C Wired for Xbox?

For $5 more, you get a lot more buttons. The Ultimate C Wired for Xbox is the older model at $34.99, also licensed, also with a headphone jack and Impulse Triggers, which put rumble right in the triggers. Its sticks are Hall effect and they light up.

You lose the lights. What you get back is a controller with a lot more to adjust: firmer or softer sticks, long or short trigger pulls, and four extra buttons for your fingers to find. 8BitDo says it widened the grip angle too.

What happens next for the Ultimate 3C+ Wired?

It ships on the 16th, and no reviews are out yet. The polling rate is the big unknown, since 8BitDo didn’t print one. A spec sheet can’t tell you how those Impulse Triggers feel, either. That part takes hands.