How to get the Xbox360 Chatpad to work on the PC?

[o12t14a86]

On the Games for Windows page, there is a picture of the chatpad being used, and although it doesn't specify that it works with PC, it is still very misleading.

The link for the picture is here:

edit : http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-us...veconnect.aspx

And I made a thread asking them to either take the picture down or make drivers here:

http://forums.gamesforwindows.com/t/2533.aspx

a moderator responded but clearly from his/her post, they don't give a damn. That to me, is a reflection of Microsoft as a company.

edit: it seems right after i posted the post on GFWL forums, they changed the link to the page with the image to either discredit me or prepare to fix the page.

[Pinnacle [Rob]]

Yea, their packaging is very misleading too... in fact I'm pretty sure that (at least the old packaging) actually says that it WILL work with Windows... but then when MS was asked about that they just say some bs about it working on Xbox360 to control your Windows Media Center or some crap... which is not what the packaging says. I really don't even like to think about this stupid chatpad and MS's complete lack of interest in helping their customers... it just disgusts me frankly. I don't think there will ever be a working chatpad on the PC and if so it most certainly will NOT be because MS gives us a driver.

[o12t14a86]

A mod responded to my posts and tried to convince me to forget about it but I didn't feel that showing a chatpad on your website that doesn't support it is acceptable. So I persisted and they agreed to change the image in the future, which probably means whenever they get around to it.

The mod further stated that they have no connection between the forums and the team responsible for the product... ***? How are they supposed to receive any feedback from the customers?
He went on to say that he personally doesn't believe releasing the drivers will fill a niche in PC gaming and therefore there is no need for them. Then he closed the thread.

Sucks that I couldn't get a word in.

[Pinnacle [Rob]]

Wouldn't fill a niche? Are you kidding me? Anyone saying that probably doesn't even believe his own words... I mean we are talking about a mini-keyboard. So what's next, MS says keyboards aren't needed? Everyone paying attention to technology in the 21st century knows things are gettings smaller and more convenient... the very notion that this would not fill a niche is just ridiculous. I think a more honest answer would be that it's not worth MS's time and effort... maybe to be considered a "niche" to MS you have to be at least 10 million gamers... then again even that seems crazy because I'm sure there are easily 500,000 people that would buy chatpad for HTPC (home-theatre PC) and since MS makes the chatpad, the gamepad, and the Windows system it's running on, it's hard to believe it would be more than a simple project for them to make it PC compatible. It's crazy to me, but I suppose they just have better things to do is really what it amounts to... any other company would see it as a huge opportunity to make money on two of their existing products, but unfortunately that is just a drop in the bucket for MS so instead they are busy trying to make people want to buy Vista (instead of sticking with XP as most people seem to be doing).

Even so I would think that if MS hired entirely new developers just to code a chatpad driver and then fire them immediately afterward, it would still probably more than pay for itself... even if it didn't I'm sure they would "break-even" eventually so you'd think they could do it just to have happy customers, but again I don't think that's MS's main concern.

[Pinnacle [Cid]]

it almost makes me think that a small company could develop a chat pad like product that attaches to both the 360 controller and the ps3 controller. It could include drivers for both that work better than the official drivers and sell it and make a tidy profit. As long as they weren't using any Microsoft code I would think they should be fine. they could even work a deal out with pinnacle to include a copy of pinnacle for use with this new driver setup.

Of course Microsoft would just pull the rug out from under them by at that point releasing chat pad drivers and sueing them for infringement, warranted or not. :P

[Pinnacle [Gary]]

Check this out...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgVxEUxQrGU

[Pinnacle [Rob]]

Well it's certainly not as nice looking as the 360 chatpad, but it actually looks pretty good... if only it were a bit smaller, but I guess it is better than nothing... and much cleaner and cheaper than using the work-around through the console.

[Pinnacle [Cid]]

I can only imagine the blisters that thing would cause by the corners digging in to the sides of your thumbs.

[N Soldier]

After a fair amount of lurking, I haven't found a Micro$oft solution either.

I think it might be a worthwhile endeavor for me to get a couple of my code crunching friends together and come up with drivers for this ourselves. Odds are we'd probably have a working driver before they would bother coming out with one.

On a side note, after reading this thread and trying Pinnacle myself, I have fallen in love with the product and the attitude of the team behind its creation. Never lose your willingness to improve your product in any and all ways.

[Pinnacle [Rob]]

Cool, it would be great if someone would develop a chatpad driver... I don't really know anything about writing drivers myself, but I think it would be a difficult project... still it would be well worth it!