Evil Shift Controller Update Interview

November 8, 2019 at 3:59am
By Jason Stettner

Interview with Adam Coe, CEO and Founder at Evil Controllers

A staple I do in all interviews in order to start things off is to ask that you elaborate a bit about your product and company that people might not know?

Adam: 12 years ago,I started Evil Controllers as a hobby in my college freshman dorm room with only $500. After a number of sales and satisfied customers, I realized the market potential for modded controllers, and an industry was born.

Today, the company is still pioneering, creating high-quality products that esports gamers need to be competitive. Beyond customization of controllers, Evil Controllers’ Accessible Gaming Division provides disabled gamers with controller customization, enabling anyone to play video games despite physical limitations. Based in Tempe, AZ, Evil Controllers has produced hundreds of thousands of completely customized controllers for customers around the globe.

Could you briefly go over the Evil Shift, what it aims to provide and what platforms are supported?

Adam: The Evil Controllers team is focused on solving esports players’ biggest pain points with the Evil Shift, including the best trigger sensitivity in the industry and significant resistance reduction available for both Xbox One and PS4. Some fun stats about the Evil Shift:

-The Evil Shift Controller’s hairpin triggers reduce the tension of the trigger by over 50%.

-The Evil Shift Controller gives no hard feedback from metal to plastic contact, thus increasing feedback after each trigger pull; the lighter response means a lighter pull is required to fire and fast rebound to top, so that gamers can pull faster.

-Three new features: The Evil Shift Controller’s Tactile Triggers, Buttons, and D-pad (PS4 only) reduce the travel to 1mm, providing a crisp tactile response. Essentially the faster actuation, the faster the response time.

I understand there are some new features that have been added recently, could you tell us a bit about those and what they provide?

Adam: The Evil Shift Controller features a variety of advances and advantages that the competition can’t reach including:

-The Evil Shift Controller’s Tactile Sensitive buttons give players that satisfying mouse-like click, increasing reaction time, and gamers noticing an immediate difference in gameplay.

-Tactile Triggers provide instant feedback with only 1mm of travel. Compatible with all shooters and vehicles, however Hairpin is recommended for driving games as Hairpin allows the trigger to have full travel with analog control.

-Tactile Dpad (PS4 only) provides instant feedback with only 1 mm of travel. Most importantly this feature adds individual buttons below the Dpad, allowing for precise selection of directional movements.

-With no trigger stops, players have no limit to game play when using the Evil Shift Controller.

-Players using the Evil Shift Controller feel zero limitation in trigger pull.

-Overall the team at Evil Controllers reduced the travel for nearly every button on the controller, allowing for faster response times.

-Evil Sticks come in three sizes, allowing for physical customization to the height.

-A new feature: Pro Tension is an esports feature that increases the tension of the thumbsticks (220 grams), naturally allowing the user to have more fine control over movement. This provides a significant advantage in all game types from shooters to racing games.

The Evil Shift controller has been around for a while at this point, do you feel it’s a great base to continue adding options to? Are more features being considered for the future?

Adam: I feel the Evil Shift Paddles are the ideal foundation for the controller, maximizing the use of your available fingers. Naturally, the design will evolve visually and physically, however it will always incorporate the concept behind the Evil Shift Paddles.

This is definitely a controller designed to provide professional features, what key strides have been taken to make sure this is something perfect for those looking to experience that feeling?

Adam: Our esports features have been evolving for over 12 years, with many factors contributing to the successful design. Being a gamer myself with a desire to play professionally helped me to understand the concept and then apply the designs to my own gameplay.

By having all types of gamers from professional to casual experiencing an Evil controller, their feedback naturally allowed us to continually improve the design for current gaming needs.

I understand there are mod type options available for those that desire them, could you explain that further for those that might not be familiar as to what these can provide?

Adam: We offer a wide range of customization options to fit most any gamer. Customization highlights include:

-Add a custom image or tagline to the controller (just upload to the site while ordering)
-32 faceplate choices
-Choose shift paddles, shift buttons or no shift enhancements plus a choice of 7 tactile grip materials
-3 remapping options
-Choose thumbstick size: 11mm, 15.37mm or 17.87mm (for reference, standard OEM thumbsticks are 10mm
| Proprietary Convex design is engineered to increase aim by reducing over correction
| Choose from 9 thumbstick colors
-10 color choices for ABXY buttons
-10 color choices for D-Pad
-Six LED color choices

There’s a lot of customization elements present with these controllers; how did the team decide that this open level of freedom was the way to go?

Adam: We want gamers to have a fun experience creating their own controller, while also making it one-of-a-kind product. Being that each controller is hand-made, we feel a large variety of options are necessary to make you stand out from the rest.

With the next generation around the corner, has the team looked into taking the Evil Shift concept to those platforms? (I will note that these Evil Shift controllers are forward compatible, in case any readers were wondering. You will be able to use them with PC and Xbox Scarlett. Playstation 5 is not confirmed yet.)

Adam: We are constantly innovating, creating new products for the ever-growing gaming scene. With more platforms coming available, we look forward to incorporating the Evil Shift concept into the next generation of gaming.

The Nintendo Switch is a highly popular platform, has Evil Controllers considered playing around with a similar concept for the Joy-Cons or Pro Controller?

Adam: Although we don’t have anything to announce at this time, we are always looking to create new products that our fans want.

Lastly, I would like to leave a spot for you to say something or go over anything I might have missed during the interview?

Adam: Evil Controllers is dedicated to recreating controllers at any length needed to meet the needs of customers, through technology, ingenuity and creativity.

As we have a social mission to show that in the world of gamers, there are no disabilities, and that everyone can game, we work directly with The AbleGamers Foundation to create controllers that meet the needs of any gamer with a disability.

In 2007, Evil Controllers launched the Evil Accessibility Division, which creates individually customized controllers for gamers who are not always able to approach gaming in the same way, and often times have limited mobility, as well as enabling people to play and compete on a level that otherwise was not possible.

The Accessible Gaming Division provides disabled gamers with button modification and relocation customization, enabling them to play video games despite physical limitations. For the very demanding projects, I do the work myself to ensure perfection.

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