Was on the phone with Nintendo this afternoon, and happened to mention that I had a MadCatz controller ("Cubicon," which has great rubber grips and feels way better than the included controller). The guy on the phone said that the controller wasn't licensed, and had even been proven in Nintendo tests to actually DAMAGE the system. He even said that using that controller would very likely void my warranty, and proceeded to do a lot of typing; probably adding a note about my usage of an unlicensed product to my permanent record.

Is this BS, or what? I consider it far more likely that MadCatz's transgression was merely refusing to pay the big N's fees for a "Nintendo approved" seal, but it has been doing some odd things like pushing the B button at random intervals if left alone for too long...

@#$@#$. Now I'm worried. What do y'all think? Did the rep just make it up?

My Cubicon presses the B button on its own all the time too (have to cancel alot of audibles on Madden). I don't buy the whole damaging the system crap that Nintendo fed you, but who knows. No way the Cubicon competes with the official controller, either...

This reminds me of the 3rd party controllers for Dreamcast. They were known to cause damage to the Dreamcast console, and were known for buttons pushing themselves quite often.

I have never bought a third party controller or memory card that didn't fail on me within a few months. I just buy first party stuff. I've never had a first party conroller break without me helping.

the problems with 3rd party controllers is they generally will blow the fuse in the system that regulates the power to them. It was an extremely common occurrance in 3rd party PS one controllers. It happened with 3rd party DC controllers as well, but not as frequently. My advice is, if you don't want to risk it, buy 1st party stuff.

I had a Mad Catz Dual Force controller for my PSX and I'm almost positive it somehow messed up my sony dual shock. With the sony, the analog kept turning off when I would play games. It only started doing so after I had been using the Mad Catz on the machine. The same Dual Shock that kept acting up now works fine on my PS2(I still use my two Dual Shock 1's for 4 player Bond on the PS2). Third part memory cards are a big problem (never bought one but I've read my share of horror stories) but in my experience, third party controllers can cause problems as well.

Not really sure but here's my experience.

I own a Dream Connection 3in1 for my Dreamcast that is a multi-input device for PS dual shock controllers, keyboards, etc. It is a 3rd party product and it specifically says on it (which I found surprising as a warning) "Do not unplug or connect any controllers while the Dreamcast is powered ON. Doing so may short-circuit the controller port." So far I've payed pretty close attention to this warning so it works out for me. Nintendo has never been fond of 3rd party devices. But the controllers out there should have been tested enough so this doesn't happen (hopefully). Unfortunately since nintendo doesn't support the controller I'm not sure what to do if the Gamecube breaks. I always get the official stuff though with the exception of 3in1. Hmm...its a tough call but if it works for you then cool!

call up madcatz and see what they say. Why did you call nintendo? is you system busted. Maybe Madcatz can replace it for you.

if anyone is interested you can get the cubicon for 15$ at target. i think the price is good till mid Feb. this is a heck of a lot cheaper than 35$ for a first party controller.

I'm glad I read this today, I just bought a gamecube with a madcatz cubicon yesterday. Looks like I'll be returning the cubicon. I'm not taking chances like that... i dont care if it is cheaper.

are you serious!?!?! 35 bucks?

Yeah, it's pretty irritating too because they cost less in Japan. Nintendo basically saw the $40 XBox controller price tag and decided to up the price for the US.

Target sells the official Game Cube controller from Nintendo for $29.99 everday price. The Xbox controller is $39.99. Considering the Game Cube controller has built in vibration its a pretty good deal.

Walmart has the pelican g3 controller, which is officially licensed, and IMO the best 3rd party controller for a Nintendo console EVER, for $22.99. You also get a free 6 ft extension cord with it. Those are usually $10.

I learned my lesson with Saturn. Let me sum up a lesson that may cost a bit more, but will be better in the long run:
Never buy any 3rd party hardware.
Never, for any system.
Complete and utter fecal matter. I'd rather pay more for a quality, reliable product.

I have in my day even though it's rare found 3rd party stuff that lasted and I liked. As far as the void the warranty yes it will because that's what game companies do, as far as damage there is no bigger chance then using 1st party, and I have seen 1st parties do the same thing so I'm not gonna argue. I have had nintendo and sony employees tell me it's a load of crap they tell tech support to say.