2008 Controllers

Released as a limited/special edition, bundled with a red Play & Charge kit(grey cord, red battery), but also bundled with the red Resident Evil 5 Special Edition Xbox 360 Console on March 13th, 2009.

It’s a red shell front and back, a red sync, start/back buttons and a non-glossy guide. Then it has black accents of thumbsticks, d-pad, bumpers, triggers, and a matte black bottom strip, but glossy black top trim. While still having grey bottom/top input ports. Does have a matching red battery compartment shell/cover.

• This red controller had a longer production run than usual for limited editions at the time. Earliest I have found is week 20(29 for retail units) of 2008, and latest week is 49 of 2009, so more than a full year run. They do tend to sell higher priced, but they shouldn't be all that rare.

*Tip for any sealed owners. The alkaline batteries sit behind the controller in the packaging, if they leak, it can get inside the controller and all the way down onto the board. I opened a package like this, and while I knew the batteries had leaked, I never knew how bad it could get. It's unfortunate that you'd have to completely unseal the packaging to pull the batteries out, but if not doing that, keep an eye on battery leak signs(white smudges in the packaging). Also handle the packaging with extra care, maybe the bouncing around in shipping caused my package to leak worse than usual. It was a big pain to clean up, and scary when I spotted it on the board, but fortunately after a good cleaning, the controller still worked. The controller leak album can be found HERE.

Showed up first at a Konami booth at GamesCom August, 2008, was rumored to have been bundled with Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, but was ultimately sold individually as a Limited Edition controller.

The dpad is 16 directions vs the standard 8, although the only game I can find that supports it, is “Pro Evolution Soccer 2009”, so the 16 way d-pad probably won’t make a difference in day to day use. Is super rare inside the US, but looking at UK Ebay, they seem to be a bit more commonly found/listed.

It’s lime green on the front and back with a glossy green top trim, a non-glossy guide button, then green start/back, bumpers, sync and triggers and does have a matching lime green battery shell + Play & Charge kit battery. Then it has grey thumbsticks, d-pad, a matte grey bottom trim, and input ports.

• These had a short production run, earliest I have found is week 26 and latest is week 41 of 2008, so about a 15 week run.

Can also just be called the ‘Xbox 360 Dragon Controller’. It is an odd design to be a Walmart exclusive, has a weird eye and old style telephone on the left side, with a black dragon on the right, the style is only on the front piece, the back is a blank white(same shade as the white/grey controllers). Both thumbsticks, bumpers, back and sync buttons are black, while the d-pad, start, and triggers are white. Then it has a matte black bottom trim, but glossy white top trim, grey input ports, and a non-shiny guide button.

• This had a pretty short run, from looking at the serials, it only ran for about 6-8 weeks of production. It's possible to be a bit longer as I can only go off serials that I can find. But the earliest retail I have found is week 29 of 2008, and oldest is week 35 of 2008, so those would be the weeks of production. The Walton DV2 was made in week 27, so it's possible retail production started that same week, or maybe even week 28.

*Tip for any sealed owners. The alkaline batteries sit behind the controller in the packaging, if they leak, it can get inside the controller and all the way down into the board. I opened a package like this, and while I knew the batteries had leaked, I never knew how bad it could get. It's unfortunate that you'd have to completely unseal the packaging to pull the batteries out, but if not doing that, keep an eye on battery leak signs(white smudges in the packaging). Also handle the packaging with extra care, maybe the bouncing around in shipping caused my package to leak worse than usual. It was a big pain to clean up, and scary when I spotted it on the board, but fortunately after a good cleaning, the controller still worked. The controller leak album can be found HERE.