The new Amazon Fire TV box and Fire tablets aren’t the only new products from Amazon. The company has also launched a new Fire TV Game Controller, which includes a microphone and headphone jack.
This lets you use the game controller for voice search and Alexa voice assistant functions, and also lets you use the controller to listen to music, movies, or games without disturbing the person sitting next to you.
The Fire TV Game Controller is available for $50, or if you’re in the market for a new TV box, you can save $10 by picking up the $140 Fire TV Gaming Edition bundle which includes a 2nd-gen Fire TV, the game controller, and a 32GB microSD card.
Amazon’s new game controller is compatible with both the new Fire TV and the original, as well as the $40 Fire TV Stick. But the headphone jack only works with the 2nd-gen Fire TV. Voice search and Alexa features should work with any Fire TV device.
The game controller looks a bit like an Xbos game controller and features two analog sticks, a D-pad, A, B, X, and Y buttons, shoulder buttons, a microphone button, and navigation buttons including home, back, and menu icons. Amazon says the controller weighs 9.5 ounces, runs on two AA batteries, and should get up to 90 hours of gameplay without headphones (or 24 hours when streaming audio).
When you buy the new controller you also get a free game: DuckTales: Remastered.
The Fire TV Game Controller is available for pre-order now, and starts shipping October 22nd. Interestingly the Fire TV Gaming Edition bundle (with the game controller” ships October 5th.
Will be interested to watch Google’s event on the 6th for any indication they have anything more than a passing interest in their own Android TV platform. If not then I might go one of these new Amazon or Apple devices. Will be very curious to see reviews.
Good spec but 2g of memory come on, the new MTK SoC quad core A72 and A53 and power vr 600 series
The big news with this controller is that it uses WiFi direct instead of Bluetooth. This was done to cut down latency. ie same reason the Shield TV controller is WiFi direct.
Might want to update the article with this.
I know there was speculation from the FCC listings, but have we confirmed that I don’t see any mention of it on the Amazon website.
According to AFTVNews both the remote and the Controller are WifI based: http://www.aftvnews.com/list-of-all-fire-tv-and-fire-tv-stick-remote-and-game-controller-specs/
Yeah, I saw that… But I still haven’t seen where he got the info from.
Hi Brad. I run AFTVnews.com. A comment from my podcast lead me here.
Amazon’s search API (which often provides more information about a product than is listed on the product page) reveals that the game controller’s model number matches the FCC documents that I suspected were the new Fire TV Game Controller. There’s no question the FCC documents show a wifi device. For what it’s worth, I’ve also confirmed it’s a wifi device through my sources at Amazon.
When you say “sources at Amazon,” do you mean official, on-the-record spokesperson-type sources? Or is this off-the-record stuff.
I’m still just wary to call this a feature without actual confirmation straight from Amazon… and as far as I can tell, they don’t mention it anywhere on their website.
Sorry, I should have clarified. It’s sources I trust who wish to remain anonymous. So “off-the-record stuff”.
You’re perfectly justified to be wary, since you’re right, Amazon has not officially mentioned it anywhere yet. My interpretation of the FCC documents, backed by confirmation from my sources, is enough for me to report on the feature, but I can understand you’d be hesitant.
Thanks for weighing in!