neoKEN wrote:The andriasang article seems bias to me. The base of the Hori VOOT sticks look like the same as the HRAP. It is very solid.
I don't think the article author was really complaining about the sturdyness of the Hori Twin Sticks.
He's complaining about the price, considering he said, "Buyers will have to shell out ¥30,000. As a comparison, the Xbox 360 Arcade pack costs ¥19,800." Also he complained about the appearance: "I was among the 29.1% who said they'd pre-order, but I have no intention of buying that ugly, ugly device."
I don't think there's a strong argument for the Hori Twin Sticks not being sturdy. First, the joysticks are built by Sanwa, which (I think) is the biggest arcade part manufacturer in Japan, and have an MSRP of $85
each! They are designed for commercial use, and should last a long time under home use. Second, the HRAP base is fine, and I don't think the base really affects the sturdyness anyway. It's not a wear and tear component and shouldn't break unless you drop it. It will affect how sturdy the controller "feels" though, since the base constitutes a big part of the weight, and a heavy controller generally feels more sturdy. Third, the top panel should be metal (like Saturn Twin Sticks) or reinforced plastic (like DC Twin Sticks), if Hori knows what they're doing (and they probably do, considering they have extensive experience with arcade sticks). It wouldn't make any sense to attach heavy-duty arcade joysticks to a cheap panel.
Anyway, the site did get a number of hits from the Kotaku blog post (about 50% increase over normal). Also we received some hits from this Japanese blog posting, which is summarizing our responses to the Hori Twin Sticks announcement:
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/yms-zun/20090614
The blog author also shows off his custom Twin Sticks, which are similar to the Hori Twin Sticks. He provided a breakdown for the parts he bought, and the total was ¥23,780.
