The submersible that went missing during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck has gained a lot of attention for using a video game controller to operate it, though the reality of the situation isn’t necessarily being portrayed accurately by several media outlets.
A now viral CBS report from November 2022 had OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush giving a tour of the company’s Titan submersible, where he showed a Logitech gamepad and said: “We run the whole thing with this game controller.”
Several media outlets are inaccurately reporting this to be an Xbox or PlayStation controller, but despite similarities existing between the face buttons and thumbsticks respectively, the controller being used is a Logitech F710 Wireless Gamepad.
It’s unclear whether the currently missing submersible still uses the controller in question, however, as any footage of the vessel using it dates back to November 2022.
There are also conflicting reports surrounding the validity of this method of control. Robert Blasiak, ocean researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, told Sky News this form of control is “not the standard”.
“I understand the urge to actually be in a vehicle and go down and look for yourself,” he said. “There are some very positive impulses there: a fascination with the unknown, a fascination with this deep sea ecosystem, a fascination with history. These are all positive elements but it also has to be done responsibly.”
Harvard marine scientist Peter Girguis disagreed, however, telling Insider the use of simple devices like controllers can make submersibles more reliable, with the U.S. military being one example of an organisation opting to use video game hardware.
The U.S. Navy announced in 2017 it would begin using Xbox 360 controllers to operate the photonic masts (the replacements for periscopes), with the USS Colorado becoming the first to do so in 2018.
A search and rescue mission is currently underway for the submersible, which has five people on board including one operator and four passsengers.
IGN has reached out to both OceanGate and LogiTech for comment.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
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