Customize your Xbox Series X controller colors with the return of Microsoft's Design Lab

By Alyssa Mercante
published

Xbox Design Lab shut down in September 2020

Xbox Design Lab
(Image credit: Xbox/Microsoft)

Xbox Design Labs is back and ready to ship customized Xbox Series X controllers right now. Given the Design Lab site has been shut down since late last year, we'd take a look sooner rather than later in case Microsoft decides to bench the service again. 

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The re-opening of Xbox Design Labs was announced during the Xbox Game Showcase Extended, an extra bit of Xbox goodness tacked onto the end of E3 2021. Xbox Design Lab will now let you customize your own Xbox Series X controller, with options to change the color of the front, back, bumpers, d-pad, joysticks, and the ABXY buttons. 

Director of Xbox product marketing Navin Kumar said during the showcase that the controller customization lab shut down in September 2020 so that the team could prep for the rollout of Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, which included the new Xbox Series X controller. 

Now, however, it's reopened and you can fully customize a new-gen controller - there's even a few new colors like the Electric Volt, the cool Shock Blue, and the spicy Pulse Red. In total, there are 18 different colors for you to choose from when customizing your controller. Happily, most of the colors include recycled resins made with things like recycled water bottles and car headlights to help make the new controllers somewhat more eco-friendly. There are also a few new color options for the ABXY buttons, including one throwback to the original Xbox 360 controller.

You can also get the front of the controller custom engraved, which makes it an even more personalized bit of hardware. I for one can't wait to add my Xbox Gamertag onto one of these bad boys - although Xbox Game Showcase Extended host Parris Lilly decided to engrave his custom Lakers-inspired controller with a saying that trolls one of his best friends. Iconic. 

Kumar says the new Xbox Design Lab is "just the beginning," as the team plans to introduce additional customization options in the future. If you head to the Xbox Design Lab site right now, you can choose from a bunch of base designs as a starting point, or pick from two controllers that were inspired by popular games. There's a blue, purple, and bright green one for Psychonauts 2, and a bright yellow-and-red controller inspired by the aphids from Grounded. 

A full customized Xbox Series X controller will run you $69.99, and the store says you can get one as early as July 22. Note, this is only for the Xbox Series X controllers as the Xbox One controller design lab has not reopened. 

Check out everything that we saw at the Xbox and Bethesda E3 2021 showcase.

Alyssa Mercante
Alyssa Mercante

Alyssa Mercante is an editor and features writer at GamesRadar based out of Brooklyn, NY. Prior to entering the industry, she got her Masters's degree in Modern and Contemporary Literature at Newcastle University with a dissertation focusing on contemporary indie games. She spends most of her time playing competitive shooters and in-depth RPGs and was recently on a PAX Panel about the best bars in video games. In her spare time Alyssa rescues cats, practices her Italian, and plays soccer.