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  • Nazara & Friends: Why Nitish Mittersain wants cash for his M&A train

    Nazara & Friends: Why Nitish Mittersain wants cash for his M&A train


    Yet, it is hard to determine how to value the 25-year-old company. Is it a gaming firm? Its subsidiaries span everything from sports blogging to (more recently) outdoor kids’ play areas. Some liken it to a tech-focused holding company, such as InfoEdge, with stakes in multiple internet businesses, including Zomato and insurance aggregator Policybazaar.

    But, Nazara’s co-founder and joint managing director Nitish Mittersain is firm on becoming the “emerging Tencent of India”. In an exclusive interview with Mint, he also described the company as a “micro-Berkshire Hathaway for gaming”.

    Mittersain is pinning his ambitions on what is now an eight-year-long mergers and acquisitions (M&A) spree, snapping up games, gaming studios, events IPs, and other assets in India and abroad. And even though some subsidiaries are stagnating, Mittersain is preparing to buy more. After two fundraising rounds in 2024, the company is lining up another fundraise worth nearly ₹500 crore and bringing on new co-promoters in a massive restructuring exercise.

    Can more money and owners help Nazara deliver on the goal of being India’s Tencent?

    Shopping spree

    Once, value added services (VAS) were Nazara’s cash cow; it billed telecom companies such as Airtel and the erstwhile Vodafone for selling mobile games and other entertainment content to users. At its peak, this was nearly 90% of the company’s total revenue.

    Then, things shifted: the contemporary smartphone arrived, users began downloading apps from the Google Play Store, meaning game developers and telecom companies no longer needed each other to reach a user base. In a now well-known story, Nazara pivoted and began acquiring promising gaming companies instead.

    Since 2017, Nazara alone has acquired at least 12 companies directly, and nearly a dozen more via its subsidiaries, mainly Nodwin Gaming and Sportskeeda. Some transactions have been for intellectual property (IP)—largely games and events—rather than companies themselves.

    The result: Nazara is no longer a telecom-based VAS firm. But, it is also not purely a gaming company anymore. Its interests span several adjacent businesses, in entertainment (with event IPs like NH7 Weekender and YouTube FanFest) and media (ad tech firm Datawrkz).

    Mittersain has long called his slew of acquisitions the ‘Friends of Nazara’. The idea, he says, came to him when thinking about how to transition Nazara out of its core telecom partnerships business and align with the new, app-based reality of gaming.

    “(Gaming) is a small industry and we (founders) all know each other,” he said. “It struck me that rather than start from scratch, why don’t I find a way to partner with the people in the industry who are very passionate about what they do.”

    The result is a diversified media and entertainment business, with a sizeable chunk of revenue coming from gaming-adjacent businesses. Nearly 43% of Nazara’s revenue for the December 2024 quarter came from eSports, while adtech (Datawrkz) and gaming brought in 28% and 29% of total revenue, respectively.

    Meanwhile, Nazara’s shopping spree hasn’t slowed. Its official list of subsidiaries and associate ventures has grown from 27 in FY22 to 32 as of FY24. This fiscal, Nazara has acquired more, including real money gaming app PokerBaazi, its biggest deal by value ever.

    Mittersain says this ‘decentralization’ strategy—acting almost like a holding company—turned Nazara’s fortunes around and ensured it had a successful listing and run on the bourses.

    He points out that Nazara’s early bets have paid handsome returns. “In three years (after acquisition), Paper Boat Apps (developer of Kiddopia) went from roughly ₹20 crore topline to over ₹200 crore. Nodwin went from about ₹70 crore to over ₹250 crore. Sportskeeda, when we bought it, was doing about ₹15 crore revenue and was a break even business, running flattish for many years. That has now become a cash flow generating business for us,” he said.

    The impact of this growth shows on Nazara’s consolidated topline. Total income has grown more than 2.5x between FY21 and FY24; for the December 2024 quarter, it is up more than 28% year-on-year.

    The co-founder has his eyes on more acquisitions in the near future. “Right now, we are very busy acquiring gaming studios,” he said. “We now have a thesis on this as well: acquire good engines, good IP, then build a brand.”

    In FY25, Nazara spent nearly ₹300 crore on gaming studios and IPs, largely on UK-based gaming studio Fusebox and on British-Spanish gaming firm ZeptoLab.

    There may be room to pick up more such assets. “The global gaming market has actually been depressed, because during covid, there was a big run-up. Gaming companies saw a big spike, then a big drop, and now a slow decline. This has depressed valuations of all IPs and other assets in the market,” Mittersain explained.

    He has been encouraging the company’s subsidiaries to follow Nazara’s M&A playbook. “Subsidiaries like Sportskeeda are generating a lot of cash,” he said. “Sportskeeda (and others) do not need a lot of cash to run daily operations. So, it is now doing its own M&A, as is Nodwin, and now, even Datawrkz.”

    Nazara needs more acquisitions to keep plates spinning, as trends shift dramatically in the gaming business. Take Kiddopia for example. The gamified early-learning app was a big money spinner during the covid years as lockdowns worldwide forced children home and drove them to online learning and entertainment. All through FY24, Kiddopia subscribers fell by 3-6% every quarter, while the customer acquisition cost grew, as did the average subscriber churn rate. As of the December 2024 quarter, subscribers stand at 232,000, down nearly 15% year-on-year.

    “You have to be specialists to invest in this sector,” Salone Sehgal, co-founder and general partner of gaming-focused venture capital fund Lumikai, told Mint in an interview. “Every two years there is a genre and demographic shift.” As hype cycles come and go, Sehgal says, a large acquirer must spread its bets across studios, platforms, tools, and technology.

    More acquisitions mean more money. But, as minority shareholders in their own company, Nazara’s founders had run out of substantial funding options. And so, it is restructuring.

    New Nazara friends

    This year, the company announced it was raising ₹495 crore from existing investor Arpit Khandelwal, along with Mithun Sacheti, founder of the jewellery retailer Caratlane (now owned by the Tatas) in exchange for a stake of more than 42%, making them new co-promoters along with Mittersain and his family.

    A file photo of Mithun Sacheti, founder of Caratlane.

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    A file photo of Mithun Sacheti, founder of Caratlane.

    This triggered an open offer, which if fully subscribed, will take Nazara’s total promoter shareholding from just under 9% to nearly 62%. Eligible shareholders will be informed starting 28 February.

    Nazara had raised ₹855 crore via a preferential issue last September from SBI Mutual Funds, along with Junomoneta Finsol and US-based AIF Think Investments. In January 2024, it raised ₹250 crore from investors, including Zerodha founders Nikhil and Nithin Kamath.

    Nazara needs the cash, not only to keep buying more assets, but also to amalgamate what it already has. In the past year, it has been spending big money buying out the remaining stakes from the founders of its various acquisitions. For instance, last September, it spent ₹300 crore to buy out the remaining 48% of Paper Boat Apps from founders Anupam and Anshu Dhanuka. Nazara is amalgamating the company with itself.

    Apart from Kiddopia, Nazara acquired an additional 19.35% stake in Sportskeeda in September last year and invested ₹64 crore in Nodwin Gaming in December.

    As more subsidiaries settle into their business models and generate cash on the books, Nazara wants to use its own cash to hike shareholding or run a reverse-merger, boosting the parent firm’s balance sheet.

    But why must fresh cash come with new co-promoters?

    Mittersain says bringing in co-promoters isn’t merely about raising cash. Instead, he’s hoping to tick off a few targets with one move.

    “One aim was to strengthen the promoter group itself by bringing in really strong hands both with Arpit (Khandelwal) and Mithun (Sacheti),” he said. “It’s also a great vindication of what Nazara is trying to do. If my largest investor, who has been with us for 4-5 years now, plus someone like Mithun Sacheti, a tried and tested entrepreneur, are both willing to cross the line from being an investor to come in as a co-promoter—this is also a big validation for us.”

    New co-promoters will bring in the cash and muscle required to stick with the company’s ‘Friends of Nazara’ strategy of buying promising businesses.

    Assuming the open offer is fully subscribed, Nitish Mittersain and his co-promoters will own a majority of the business, reducing the public float, and freeing the management to take acquisition decisions.

    Companies with relatively low promoter shareholding usually take debt or conduct buybacks to finance their expansion. Besides, gaming isn’t a capital-intensive industry and the largest deal Nazara has cracked so far is PokerBaazi, a gaming company in which it bought a 47.7% stake for ₹982 crore.

    At the end of FY24, Nazara had ₹567 crore in cash on its books, nearly 4x more than the previous year. Besides, higher promoter shareholding also means more fundraising options in the future.

    Soul searching

    An open offer is a potential exit for public investors. But will a larger promoter shareholding, and more cash, help Nazara finally build a core business?

    Analysts closely tracking the company are not so sure.

    “I have not been a great fan of this growth strategy,” Abhishek Kumar, equity research analyst with brokerage JM Financial, told Mint. “My central thesis is that the only thing constant in the gaming industry is the gamer. Games, tastes, and monetization models will change,” he said. “Nazara’s biggest challenge is that it does not have a homogenous set of assets, as Tencent does. What will you cross-sell to a Kiddopia user, a Sportskeeda fan, and a Fusebox gamer?”

    But according to Mittersain, Nazara’s core business has always been gaming. “Our gaming culture is still the core but we are also evolving. What we are today and what we may become, may change,” he said.

    Nazara’s biggest challenge is that it does not have a homogenous set of assets, as Tencent does.
    —Abhishek Kumar

    For now, Nazara’s numbers show it isn’t using its money efficiently. In the last four fiscal years, return on capital employed—a metric to measure the earnings the company’s investments generated—has remained roughly between 3-7%. That is partly because of the nature of the gaming business.

    “It is very difficult to predict the longevity of a game or a gaming asset,” Piyush Pandey, senior vice president at brokerage Centrum India, told Mint. “Unlike a hard asset, such as a cement plant, you cannot predict the cash flows and value generation from such an asset. If it does not do well, there is an additional impairment risk.” An impairment is a one-time charge a company takes on its books when the value of its asset decreases.

    In sum, there is still a high risk that the cash Nazara has raised, and is raising now, will potentially be lost to a bad asset. But Mittersain is not too worried about these capital efficiency measures. His only concern, he says, is how much cash the company brings home at the end of the day.

    “If you look at my FY24 numbers, we reported ₹129 crore Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization) and my OCF (operating cash flow) was ₹154 crore, much more than Ebitda,” he said. “This is our DNA: we don’t burn cash to grow.”

    Cash on Nazara’s consolidated books has risen steadily in the last four fiscal years. With the current fundraise, it will have an even bigger pile, and much less public shareholding to worry about or placate.

    “If we generate cash, I can reinvest it in whatever I want to do,” Mittersain said. “I can’t be diluting or raising capital forever, right?”


  • Lenovo Legion Go S review: feels good, plays bad

    Lenovo Legion Go S review: feels good, plays bad


    The Lenovo Legion Go S was supposed to change things. It was poised to show Valve isn’t the only one that can build an affordable, portable, potent handheld gaming PC — you just need the right design and the right OS.

    I was intrigued when Valve’s own Steam Deck designers told me this Windows handheld would double as the first authorized third-party SteamOS handheld this May. When I heard Lenovo had procured an exclusive AMD chip that would help that SteamOS version hit $499, I got excited for a true Steam Deck competitor.

    But I’m afraid that chip ain’t it.

    I’ve spent weeks living with a Legion Go S powered by AMD’s Z2 Go, the same chip slated to appear in that $499 handheld. I’ve used it with both Windows and Bazzite, a SteamOS-like Linux distro that eliminates many of Windows’ most annoying quirks. I tested both directly against a Steam Deck OLED and the original Legion Go, expecting to find it between the two in terms of performance and battery life. But that’s not what I found.

    Watt for watt, its Z2 Go chip simply can’t compete with the Steam Deck, and it’s far weaker than the Z1 Extreme in last year’s handhelds. That’s inexcusable at the $730 price you’ll currently pay for the Windows version, and I won’t be the first reviewer to say so. But with this less efficient chip and a mere 55 watt-hour battery, I worry the Legion Go S isn’t a good choice at all.

    $730

    The Good

    • Good ergonomics
    • Great variable refresh rate screen
    • Powerful cooling
    • Fast 100W charging

    The Bad

    • Performance is too low
    • Windows is bloated and can’t be trusted to sleep
    • Somewhat slippery texture
    • Nearly useless touchpad

    I want to say that the Legion Go S “makes a great first impression,” but Windows 11 still features a terrible out-of-box experience. I spent nearly 45 minutes waiting for mandatory updates to install and dismissing dark-patterned offers for Microsoft products that have no business being on my handheld gaming machine.

    Still, the Go S is built far better than the original Legion Go, whose flat-faced controllers felt awkward in my hands. The new portable has some of the best-sculpted grips I’ve felt on a handheld, though their smooth texture can feel a little slippery. I’d have gone with more aggressive stippling to help me hold its 1.61-pound weight.

    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    But its buttons all feel precise and secure, if the triggers are longer than I’d like, and its concave-topped, drift-resistant Hall effect joysticks feel comfy and wonderfully smooth to spin. The only weak control is the touchpad, which is so tiny I flick repeatedly to move the cursor an inch at a time.

    Audio is much improved from front-facing speakers, and a larger fan moves more air while staying quieter than before. And it’s one of the fastest-charging handhelds yet — I clocked each of its top-mounted USB 4 ports drawing a full 100 watts of USB-C PD power during actual use. The cooling and charging are so good, Lenovo lets you crank the chip up to 40-watt TDP while it’s plugged in or 33 watts on battery alone.

    The backs of the original Legion Go and Legion Go S, showing detachable controls vs. fixed grips.

    The backs of the original Legion Go and Legion Go S, showing detachable controls vs. fixed grips.
    Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

    But as you’ll see in my benchmark charts, the Z2 Go simply isn’t in the same ballpark as the Steam Deck OLED’s “Sephiroth” chip. In some games, it can’t beat the Steam Deck at all, even if you plug it in and crank it all the way up.

    Legion Go S 720p benchmarks

    Game

    Legion Go S (Z2 Go)

    Steam Deck OLED

    Legion Go (Z1 Extreme)

    Z1E vs. Z2 Go
    AC Valhalla, 15-watt TDP 44 52 49 11.36%
    20-watt TDP 55 N/A 63 14.55%
    25-watt TDP 60 N/A 69 15.00%
    30-watt TDP 62 N/A 71 14.52%
    Plugged in 65 52 73 12.31%
    Cyberpunk 2077, 15-watt TDP 36 52 42 16.67%
    20-watt TDP 41 N/A 54 31.71%
    25-watt TDP 45 N/A 59 31.11%
    30-watt TDP 46 N/A 61 32.61%
    Plugged in 49 52 62 26.53%
    DX: Mankind Divided, 15-watt TDP 56 70 61 8.93%
    20-watt TDP 63 N/A 84 33.33%
    25-watt TDP 66 N/A 89 34.85%
    30-watt TDP 67 N/A 91 35.82%
    Plugged in 70 70 92 31.43%
    Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, 15-watt TDP 18 34 25 38.89%
    20-watt TDP 21 N/A 28 33.33%
    25-watt TDP 20 N/A 28 40.00%
    30-watt TDP 24 N/A 28 16.67%
    Plugged in 24 34 33 37.50%
    Returnal, 15-watt TDP 24 26 32 33.33%
    20-watt TDP 26 N/A 38 46.15%
    25-watt TDP 29 N/A 40 37.93%
    30-watt TDP 30 N/A 41 36.67%
    Plugged in 32 26 38 18.75%
    Shadow of the Tomb Raider, 15-watt TDP 53 61 50 -5.66%
    20-watt TDP 53 N/A 69 30.19%
    25-watt TDP 55 N/A 75 36.36%
    30-watt TDP 64 N/A 73 14.06%
    Plugged in 65 61 75 15.38%

    Average framerates. All games tested at 720p and low or (Cyberpunk 2077) handheld-specific settings.

    Take Cyberpunk 2077. With the Steam Deck, which runs at 15-watt TDP, I can average 52 frames per second at an upscaled 720p resolution and low settings on battery power alone. But even if I feed the Legion Go S with 40 watts and plug it into a wall, the open-world game runs slower at 49fps. And that’s after a new set of drivers; the shipping ones were much worse.

    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    In other games, cranking up Lenovo’s TDP by five, 10, or 15 watts can give it a comfortable lead over the Deck. But that significantly impacts battery. In Lenovo’s default 25W “Performance” mode, I saw some games run just as smoothly as on the Deck — but with total system power consumption of around 36 watts, draining the handheld’s 55 watt-hour battery in about an hour and a half. The Steam Deck, which drains at around 22 to 24 watts at full bore, lasts two hours at the same smoothness.

    I have possible good news about SteamOS: when I installed Bazzite, which can serve as a decent preview of what SteamOS might look and feel like, I saw frame rates improve by an average of 16 percent in early tests (minus Returnal, which seems to hate Linux for some reason), and Bazzite is such a breath of fresh air after attempting to use Windows. But it still didn’t reach Steam Deck performance unless I sacrificed more battery to get it. That works with a handheld like the Asus ROG Ally X with a big 80 watt-hour battery, but not so much here.

    Legion Go S Windows vs. Bazzite

    Game

    Legion Go S (Windows)

    Legion Go S (Bazzite)

    Steam Deck OLED

    Bazzite vs. Windows
    Cyberpunk 2077, 15-watt TDP 36 42 52 16.67%
    20-watt TDP 41 53 N/A 29.27%
    25-watt TDP 45 59 N/A 31.11%
    30-watt TDP 46 60 N/A 30.43%
    Plugged in 49 60 52 22.45%
    DX: Mankind Divided, 15-watt TDP 56 62 70 10.71%
    20-watt TDP 63 74 N/A 17.46%
    25-watt TDP 66 80 N/A 21.21%
    30-watt TDP 67 84 N/A 25.37%
    Plugged in 70 82 70 17.14%
    Returnal, 15-watt TDP 24 17 26 -29.17%
    20-watt TDP 26 22 N/A -15.38%
    25-watt TDP 29 24 N/A -17.24%
    30-watt TDP 30 25 N/A -16.67%
    Plugged in 32 25 26 -21.88%
    Shadow of the Tomb Raider, 15-watt TDP 53 51 61 -3.77%
    20-watt TDP 53 59 N/A 11.32%
    25-watt TDP 55 62 N/A 12.73%
    30-watt TDP 64 63 N/A -1.56%
    Plugged in 65 65 61 0.00%

    Average framerates. All games tested at 720p and low or (Cyberpunk 2077) handheld-specific settings.

    Even if you crank up the Z2 Go, its “turbo” modes are never anywhere near as effective as the Z1 Extreme in last year’s portables. In my tests, the original Legion Go with Z1E runs anywhere from 15 percent to 40 percent faster comparing Windows to Windows — a lot for a handheld, where modern games struggle to reach smooth frame rates at all.

    The Legion Go S does have an ace up its sleeve: its crisp, colorful 1920 x 1200 IPS screen looks better at lower resolutions than its predecessor’s 2560 x 1600 panel, and it runs more smoothly at lower frame rates now that it has VRR to adjust its refresh rate anywhere between 48Hz and 120Hz on the fly. I would not buy a Legion Go over a Legion Go S for this reason alone.

    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    And if you primarily play games that don’t require performance, the Legion Go S is a bit more efficient at lower wattage: by setting TDP, brightness, and refresh rate low, I was able to achieve a total of just 7.5W battery drain in Windows and 7W in Bazzite while playing magic math poker game Balatro. That should net me seven to eight hours of battery life, and you should be able to hit the four-hour mark without those tricks just by setting the Legion Go S to its 8-watt TDP “Quiet” mode. When I played the similarly easy to run Slay the Spire on the original Legion Go, pulling out all the stops, I couldn’t even reach five hours.

    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    But again, the Steam Deck does efficiency better. Simply limiting frame rate to 25fps and brightness to 40 percent can yield over eight hours of Balatro on the Deck, and I’ve gotten four hours, 42 minutes in Dave the Diver there. With the Legion Go S, my Dave only got 2.5 hours to hunt those sushi ingredients and blow up fake environmentalists!

    I am comfortable saying no one should buy the Windows version of the Lenovo Legion Go S, which costs $730 at Best Buy. Even if the performance, battery life, and price weren’t disqualifiers, Windows is a stain on this machine. And like other recent Windows handhelds I’ve tested, it does not reliably go to sleep and wake up again: I woke several mornings to find the system hot with fans spinning, even though I’d pressed the power button the previous evening. I found it uncomfortably warm pulling it out of my bag the other day.

    Even if you prefer Windows to SteamOS, you can get notably better performance and far better battery life from the $800 Asus ROG Ally X, which is worth every extra penny, particularly since it doubles as the best Bazzite machine you can buy.

    But even if you add Bazzite to the Legion Go S, it’s no Steam Deck, and I’m not sure that’ll change by May. If you’re waiting for a $499 Legion Go S with SteamOS, here’s my advice: just buy a $530 Steam Deck OLED instead.

    Agree to Continue: Legion Go S

    Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them, since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.

    To start using the Legion Go S, you’ll need to agree to the following:

    • Microsoft Software License Terms: Windows Operating System and Terms of Use
    • Lenovo Limited Warranty and “Software license agreements”

    You can also say “yes” or “no” to the following:

    • Privacy settings (location, Find My Device, sharing diagnostic data, inking and typing, tailored experience, advertising ID)

    That’s two mandatory agreements and six optional agreements. Windows also asks you if you want a variety of software and subscription services during the out-of-box experience.


  • The best Xbox controllers: Microsoft, Razer, PowerA, and more

    The best Xbox controllers: Microsoft, Razer, PowerA, and more


    We live in a golden age of gaming controllers. The gamepads on the market now are higher quality, more versatile, and more customizable than anything from just a few console generations ago. If you play on an Xbox Series X or Series S (or a Windows PC), you can choose between several high-quality controllers from Microsoft as well as a plethora of great options from the likes of 8BitDo, PowerA, Razer, Scuf, Nacon, and Turtle Beach, some of which have even started using drift-proof Hall effect sticks for improved longevity. The days of the cheap “little sibling” controller that looked cool but barely worked are over.

    I’ve spent a ton of time playing all kinds of games (first-person shooters, fighters, third-person action-adventure, racing, indie roguelikes, etc.) to test a wide swath of Xbox controllers, and it may not be a surprise that the standard Xbox Wireless Controller is the best option for most folks. It makes a great PC controller, too.

    But while the default Xbox gamepad strikes the right balance of quality, comfort, versatility, and price, there are several alternatives worth considering.

    Is it wireless? Does it support Bluetooth? Or is it wired only? If so, is the cable replaceable?

    Does it feel cheap or nicely made? Any glitches or reliability issues while testing?

    Does it have handy extras like remappable extra buttons or fancy triggers?

    Can you remap buttons or tune it with custom software profiles? Is there a fun cosmetic flair to its design?

    Is it priced affordably, about average, or does it come at a steep premium?

    The best Xbox controller for most people

    $44

    The official Xbox Wireless Controller has a dedicated share button for saving clips and screenshots and sharing them online, Bluetooth support, and a USB-C port for charging up Microsoft’s play-and-charge rechargeable battery.

    Connectivity: Xbox wireless, Bluetooth, wired / Connector type: USB-C / Mappable rear buttons: No / Software customization: No / Power: AA batteries or add-on rechargeable

    Okay, I already know what you’re thinking. “The best controller for Xbox is the one that comes with the Xbox?” That may seem like a no-brainer, but this standard controller truly does earn this title as the best all-rounder. It lacks some extras found on pricier options, but this controller is the distillation of over 20 years of Xbox gamepads, and it shows.

    Thanks to Microsoft’s proprietary wireless protocol, this is the only affordable wireless Xbox controller out there. (Third-party wireless options have been trickling out in recent years, but they’re mostly at the high end.) While some hate the standard Xbox Wireless Controller for its use of AA batteries instead of a built-in rechargeable cell, that also means it’s flexible, allowing for rechargeable AAs or a battery pack. And user-replaceable batteries mean you’re not stuck with a controller that doesn’t hold its charge after years of use. It also works over a USB-C connection.

    Two Xbox controllers, one blue and one black, being held by wooden mannequin hands.

    The standard Xbox controller looks great, feels great, plays great, and is available in cool colors.
    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    A closeup of a Hori rechargeable battery pack inserted into an Xbox controller.
    A closeup photo of the Xbox Wireless Controller in blue, showing that the buttons are color-matched to the controller.

    Attention to detail: Microsoft color-matches the light-up Xbox button to the controller.
    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    But the standard-issue Xbox pad isn’t just great because of its connectivity. The hardware itself is excellent for the controller’s $60 asking price. The sticks, buttons, triggers, and the sunken dish-shaped D-pad all feel impeccably tight, with the latter having a satisfying clickiness to it. If you’re a hardcore fighting game fan, you may be better served by a dedicated fight stick or a controller geared toward that genre — one with a superb D-pad like Hori’s Horipad Pro — but the Xbox Wireless Controller is an extraordinary jack-of-all-trades.

    The only things it really lacks compared to pricier options are extra, customizable buttons and software tuning for things like stick sensitivity, though Microsoft does offer cosmetic customization through its Xbox Design Lab, which bumps the price from $69.99 to $109.93 depending on the configuration. There’s a lot to love about these controllers, whether you make your own or pick one from the many colors Microsoft offers.

    The best cheap Xbox controller

    $27

    PowerA’s Advantage Wired Controller is a budget-minded gamepad for Xbox and PC that connects via USB-C and features two customizable rear buttons and three-way trigger lockouts.

    Connectivity: Wired / Connector type: USB-C / Mappable rear buttons: Two / Software customization: No / Power: Wired

    If you’re looking for a great controller but don’t have a lot of money to spend — and you don’t mind a cable — PowerA’s Advantage Wired Controller offers a solid value without much sacrifice. Its full retail price is $37.99, but some color schemes dip as low as $25. The Advantage is PowerA’s follow-up to its Enhanced Wired Controller, our previous budget pick. Like the Enhanced, the Advantage comes in a wide variety of hues and designs, but it has some nice improvements. Namely, the new model has a detachable USB-C cable (instead of micro-USB) and three-way hair-trigger lockouts. It also has two customizable rear buttons like the Enhanced, rounding out a nice arsenal of features for a low-cost gamepad.

    You don’t normally find a feature like hair-trigger lockouts on a controller this affordable.

    You don’t normally find a feature like hair-trigger lockouts on a controller this affordable.
    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    The only other thing I’d love to see in a controller this cheap are drift-free Hall effect sticks. If that’s a priority to you while on a tight budget, consider spending a little more on the GameSir G7 SE. It’s another great USB-C wired option that puts the drift worries to bed for around $40, though it doesn’t have trigger lockouts like the Advantage does.

    A pair of hands playing a white GameSir G7 SE controller on a laptop.A pair of hands playing a white GameSir G7 SE controller on a laptop.

    $45

    A wired controller for Xbox and Windows PC with two programmable rear buttons, detachable USB-C cable, and drift-free Hall effect sticks.

    The best “pro” Xbox controller

    $169

    The Xbox Elite Series 2 is easily one of our favorite controllers at The Verge. It’s an improvement on the already excellent Elite controller, with deep customization, optional rear paddle buttons, a swappable D-pad, and analog sticks that allow you to tailor its layout to suit your play style.

    Connectivity: Xbox wireless, Bluetooth, wired / Connector type: USB-C / Mappable rear buttons: Up to four / Software customization: Yes / Power: Built-in rechargeable

    The Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 is Microsoft’s fancy controller, and it’s got a lot of nice extras, like better build quality, extra buttons, user-swappable sticks and D-pad, a built-in rechargeable battery, and loads of software customization. Where the standard Xbox controller is constructed entirely of unassuming plastic, the Elite mixes higher quality soft-touch plastic, rubberized grips, and metallic touches for a superior fit and finish. This makes it heftier than the stock controller, and it just feels nice in your hands. It also comes with a charging dock and zip-up case with passthrough charging, completing a really nice package for $179.99. There’s also the stripped-down Elite Series 2 “Core” version with an MSRP of $129.99, which ditches the add-ons. You can buy them separately in a $59.99 accessories pack, but you’ll end up paying more that way, barring sales or discounts.

    A pricey controller like an Xbox Elite is a bit of an emotional purchase. Most of us are not competing at e-sports levels, but it’s fun to use something that feels nicer, offers ways to custom-tailor it to your likings, and maybe gives you a slight competitive edge thanks to features like hair triggers and removable rear paddles. In theory, you may be able to get shots off faster in an online shooter with the hair triggers, and you can map the paddles to functions like jump, crouch, reload, etc. while keeping your thumb on the right stick. You could teach yourself claw grip to accomplish the latter with even a cheap wired controller, sure, but it just won’t feel as cool as when using an Elite. (And why try to get good or learn something when I can buy my way there instead?)

    A close-up of the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller, showing its matte black finish.

    The Xbox Elite Series 2 is made from premium materials but has a nice, subdued aesthetic.
    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    A macro closeup of the dish-shaped metal D-pad on the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2.

    The metal, dish-like D-pad is a small work of art. Sadly, however, it’s a far cry from the best D-pad around.
    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    The removable rear paddles of the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller.

    The four removable paddles on the rear sit beneath the trigger locks and charging dock pins.
    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    While the Elite is still a great controller in 2025, you should keep in mind that it’s been around since 2019 and a Series 3 revision is feeling long overdue. The Series 2 also has a bit of a reputation for lackluster quality control — with horror stories from users about going through multiple replacements under warranty. Microsoft extended the controller’s warranty from 90 days to a year in late 2020 to help address concerns, but buying an Elite Series 2 may still feel like a slightly risky proposition. It also predates the current-gen implementation of a dedicated Share button, and its potentiometer-based sticks run the risk of stick drift after long-term use (something third parties are addressing with controllers that use drift-free Hall effect sticks, unlike all three big console manufacturers).

    Even with those heaping mouthfuls of salt, the Elite 2 remains by far the most well-rounded option for a step-up Xbox controller — thanks in large part to its impressive build and expansive software experience. If all these caveats give you pause, though, there is another promising option.

    Read our Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 review.

    A formidable alternative to the Elite

    $200

    Razer’s Wolverine V3 Pro is its first wireless controller for Xbox and PC. It also features Hall effect sticks, mouse click-like hair triggers, swappable stick toppers, and six customizable buttons.

    Connectivity: Wireless USB dongle (Xbox / PC), wired / Connector type: USB-C / Mappable rear buttons: Four / Software customization: Yes / Power: Built-in rechargeable

    At $199.99, Razer’s Wolverine V3 Pro controller is even more expensive than the Elite Series 2, but it’s worth the added cost if you want a high-end controller with drift-free sticks. Not only is the V3 Pro Razer’s first foray into using Hall effect sticks, it’s the company’s first fully wireless Xbox gamepad. It also sports some of the best hair-trigger lockouts around, with a mouse-like click usually found on even pricier Scuf controllers (a previous high-ranking pick of ours). Other than that, the V3 Pro is similar to the previous V2 Pro, with six remappable buttons — four rear paddles in new, angled orientations and two extra shoulder buttons — and some RGB lighting. The buttons and D-pad still have that satisfying micro-switch tactility and audible clickiness like the previous-gen V2 Pro, but the RGB lighting is more subtle this time around.

    The V3 Pro has four angled rear buttons and two extra shoulder buttons.

    The V3 Pro has four angled rear buttons and two extra shoulder buttons.
    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    In addition to standard stick toppers it comes with a short, domed option and an extra-tall concave one.
    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    The extra shoulder buttons are handy for claw grip, or freeing up some of the rear paddles for other functions.
    Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    The Wolverine V3 Pro’s biggest shortcomings compared to Microsoft’s Elite Series 2 are its more basic software customization, lack of Bluetooth, and the fact that it needs a USB dongle to work wirelessly. The V3 Pro is otherwise the better pick if you can justify its very high cost. And if you can’t, there’s also the $99.99 Wolverine V3 Pro Tournament Edition that has a nearly identical set of features in a wired version.

    Other controllers worth knowing about

    • Nacon’s Revolution X is one of the most customizable wired controllers you can get (it even has removable weights in its handles), and its software is nearly as expansive as Microsoft’s first-party app.
    • Turtle Beach’s controllers have offerings with handy audio features geared toward competitive shooters, like the Recon and React-R. Its fanciest option, the Stealth Ultra, is a $200 wireless model with Hall effect sticks that’s overall very good. Though, for the same money, I prefer the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, since it feels better to use and the Stealth Ultra’s built-in 1.5-inch screen for customizing functions (or getting social media notifications) is clunky.
    • 8BitDo’s Ultimate Wired Controller for Xbox and PC is a quality, affordable gamepad with two rear buttons and software customization, though the lengthy USB cable is not detachable. There’s a new model with Hall effect sticks and a detachable USB-C cable that looks like a real contender. It’s on our shortlist of options to test next alongside the 8BitDo Ultimate C, which has RGB analog stick rings but lacks rear buttons, and the 8BitDo Ultimate 3-Mode, which is wired on Xbox but includes wireless connectivity for PC and mobile.
    • Briefly mentioned above, the Horipad Pro has one of the best D-pads around. It also offers a lot of software customization at an affordable price, but its shoulder buttons are a bit stiff.
    • If you’re the nostalgic type, the Hyperkin Duke, DuchesS, and Xenon are faithful wired recreations of Xbox gamepads from Microsoft’s first two console generations. They’re kind of dumb but endearing (especially the chunky Duke), but they’re unique collector pieces you can also use on modern games.
    • We’re planning to test PowerA’s newest pro-style Xbox controllers, including the Fusion Pro 4 Wired and PowerA Fusion Pro Wireless. The former is primarily standard fare for a pro-style controller these days, but it does come with height-adjustable Hall effect sticks. It also features remappable rear buttons, three-way trigger locks, and onboard volume controls. The Fusion Pro Wireless is similar but offers some trippy Lumectra lighting, letting you customize four separate RGB zones with six different lighting modes.
    • We’d be remiss not to give the wireless Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot a spin (pun intended). The customizable controller uses a unique swivel system that allows you to quickly swap the analog sticks for additional face buttons, which makes it ideal for fighting game purists and other retro gaming needs. We plan on getting our hands on one in the coming weeks, so we’ll let you know whether it’s the next best thing or just a fun party trick.

    Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

    Update, February 5th: Updated with current pricing and availability, plus details on new controllers we’re planning to test.



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