What Was Running the Titanic Submersible? It Could Be a $49.99 Videogame Controller
Tech analysts say videogame controllers are often used in other applications
Tech analysts say videogame controllers are often used in other applications
The missing submersible headed for the Titanic shipwreck may have been operated by a wireless video game controller that sells online for $49.99.
Stockton Rush, founder and chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions, which owns the Titan submersible, said in a 2022 segment with CBS News that the vessel was operated by a video game controller.
“We run the whole thing with this game controller,” Rush said during the news segment, holding what appeared to be a modified wireless gamepad made by computer-peripherals company Logitech International.
It’s unclear if OceanGate Expeditions was using a Logitech controller on the Titan when it started its mission on Sunday. A spokesperson for OceanGate declined to comment. Logitech didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The Titan lost contact with the ship monitoring it from the surface one hour and 45 minutes after it began its dive in the North Atlantic on Sunday morning. The Titanic sits about 13,000 feet below the ocean’s surface and about 900 miles off Massachusetts’ Cape Cod.
Rescuers are trying to find the submersible before its oxygen runs out, which officials say could happen Thursday morning. The Titan’s five-member crew includes Rush.
The controller the Titan used in the past appeared to be a modified Logitech F710 gamepad with extended joysticks.
An earlier version of OceanGate’s submersible vessels called the Cyclops was operated by a Sony PlayStation 3 controller, according to a 2014 promotional video released by OceanGate.
The Logitech F710 gamepad was first available in 2010. It’s compatible with computers running on the Windows and ChromeOS operating systems.
Such controllers can be adapted for piloting other machines, as long as the controller and the machine are using the same signal, said Michael Pachter, a managing director at Wedbush Securities.
Game controllers are commonly used in applications beyond video games, said Will McKeon-White, an analyst at technology research firm Forrester. The U.S. military and foreign militaries use them to control vehicles and in other applications because they are fairly intuitive and users often have an existing familiarity with them, he said. The Pentagon didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“The problem with the usage of a Logitech controller here isn’t the fact that a game controller was used,” McKeon-White said. “The issue is they chose a really, really cheap model.”
The military typically expects to have a backup when it uses video game controllers, McKeon-White said. That way “it’s not a situation of ‘your life only relies on a video game controller,’ ” he said.
OceanGate didn’t say if there were backup controlling devices available on the Titan.
Pachter said the Logitech gamepad is considered a durable device made of commonplace parts.
“Every single component of that thing is a commodity component that doesn’t break,” he said, though “they do wear out after a while.”
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The company is best known for its prestigious Penfolds brand
Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates admitted defeat in its effort to divest brands including Wolf Blass and Blossom Hill, moderating its annual earnings guidance amid weaker sales of its cheaper products.
Last year, Treasury outlined plans to offload its so-called commercial portfolio in a pivot toward costlier, higher-margin brands. As part of the move, it bought California’s Frank Family Vineyards in 2021 and Daou Vineyards in 2023 in deals worth US$1.31 billion combined.
On Thursday, Treasury told investors that it had failed to find a buyer for its budget brands.
“TWE has concluded that the offers received for these brands did not represent compelling value and therefore their retention is the best course of action,” Treasury said.
The company, which is best known for its prestigious Penfolds brand, said that demand for brands typically retailing for less than US$19 a bottle had fallen by 4.9% in the December-half. That includes the commercial portfolio, which comprises the company’s cheapest offerings.
As a result, Treasury expects so-called Ebits—earnings before interest, tax and other impacts including one-off items—for the full fiscal year of 780 million Australian dollars, or about US$489.8 million. That’s at the bottom end of its previously issued A$780 million-A$810 million guidance range.
Even so, Treasury on Thursday reported a A$220.9 million net profit for its fiscal first half, up 33% on year as the company continued to re-establish its Penfolds brand in China following that country’s removal of tariffs on Australian wine.
Revenue rose by 20% to A$1.57 billion, while profit increased 33% to A$239.6 million once material items and currency moves were stripped out.
The average analyst forecast had been for a net profit of A$242.1 million from revenue of A$1.57 billion, according to data compiled by Visible Alpha. Treasury reported first-half Ebits of A$391.4 million.
The board declared a dividend of 20 Australian cents a share, up from 17 cents a year earlier.
This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan
Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.