Microsoft has announced a trio of unique new Xbox Wireless special edition controllers. It’s called the Breaker series, and it includes three new controllers of various colors, united by a jagged design style that looks quite stylish. They’re all available for preorder for $79.99, with a September 9 release date. You can see them at Microsoft Store or check the Amazon page, where the listings are gradually being populated (full listings should be up soon, and I'll update this page when they are).
There’s the blue-tinged Ice Breaker, the black-and-white Storm Breaker, and the Heart Breaker, which is purple, pink, and blue. Each one has textured grips, as well as unique elements we’ll get into below.
Xbox Wireless Controller - Ice Breaker Special Edition
The Ice Breaker controller has a cool, uh, icy design, with blue, light blue, white shards on its face. The non-painted parts of the front of the controller are translucent white, giving it some nice depth. It also has various shades of light blue on its thumbsticks, face buttons, and D-pad. And the grips are textured, so it won’t slip out of your hands like ice. The overall effect is pretty striking.
Xbox Wireless Controller - Heart Breaker Special Edition
If the colors of the other two Breaker series Xbox controllers are somewhat subtle, that’s not a problem for the Heart Breaker controller. Its face features bold pink, purple, and blue shards on translucent pink plastic. The sticks are purple and the D-pad is pink, and the face buttons have pink letters on purple backgrounds.
Xbox Wireless Controller - Storm Breaker Special Edition
For those who appreciate the less colorful side of controller design, the Storm Breaker Xbox controller is the one to get. It has the same shard-based design, but with tasteful black, gray, and white shards. It doesn’t have any translucent plastic on its face, but it does have “hints of silver foliage when you rotate the device within the light.” That’s pretty neat. It also has a metallic D-pad.
As with all colorways of official Xbox Wireless controllers, these are compatible with Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One, Windows PC, Mac, Android, and iOS devices. I’ve been playing video games a long time, and this line of Xbox controllers is my favorite controller of all time. It feels great in the hand, the textured grips are terrific, as are the textured triggers. The PS5 DualSense may have a big touchpad and extra haptics, but I can definitely live without that stuff, because it just doens't feel as good to use. That's my opinion, anyway.
Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.
