It has to do with the way things scale. The PS controllers are a complete bitch to play with if you have large hands. And your hands don't have to be that large before you can no longer hold the horn things in the plam. But, the xBox controllers are larger and more rounded, making it somewhat easier to hold them with large hands.

As long as your hands are large enough to get around, they're fine for everybody else.

The aspect that's getting used to things is that the PS controllers have the second thumbstick swapped with the D-pad compared with how the Xbox controller does.

MS put a ton more thought into the process of designing their controllers than Sony did and it shows. Also, MS designed it with westerners in mind. Something which most Asian companies are loathed to do.

I've played Playstation games (of our friends) ever since the thing came out. Even so, I and my brother have never been able to adjust to the controller properly, which is why our household first had an N64 and then a GameCube. I'm not saying those had perfect controllers either - the N64 caltrop is an oddball intermediary shape and the GameCube's got a tiny D-pad and somewhat odd button design - but at least it took me no effort to pick them up and play (the XBox controller falls into this category as well). The DualShock makes my hands physically uncomfortable which results in pain after a few hours, which is why my second-hand PS2 sees fairly little use compared to the GC and N64. I haven't even got particularly big hands. It freaks me out.

Don't buy an Xbox360 controller for a pc, they're overpriced, they're unsupported in terms of configuration software, they have some serious design faults, they're not as ergonomic as most people say, for a lot of games that support the xbox360 controller the default layout of controls just plain sucks and you're double screwed because you can't change some (realy annoying controls).
But for some reason people holding an xbox360 controller act like they're holding the orgasmatron in their hands while in reality it's a warm pos of the stinkiest kind.

Spoken like somebody who hasn't ever actually used one. I have literally never held a controller as well designed as the XBox controller that you're accusing of being shit. And I've used a ton of them over the years. I won't list them all because that would be pretty much every console from the Atari 2600 on.

Being unable to change controls is hardly the controllers fault, that's the developers fault. The only reason why you notice it more with the official controller is that it's designed to work directly with the software. If you care about it as I often do, you just use Xpadder and it's dealt with in a much more flexible way.

If you've used any of the Nintendo, Sega, Sony or Atari controllers you'd know exactly why the XBox controller is so great.

As unclean as it makes me feel suggesting an MS product, it is a solid controller and one of the best ones on the market. The reason for the price is that they actually created a quality product. Sure you do pay brand inflation, but it's a solid product. Just like most of MS' hardware products.

Actually, I'm a 'proud' owner of one of these abominations.

So have I, first I thought I did a good buy with it, but then I noticed in competive online racing that my performance went from competing at the top to being last all the time.
Why which I will explain shorlty.

I really do not understand why you are actually complimenting Microsoft for not supplying this controller with good configuration software. As for xpadder, it has to be bought seperately and hasn't even remotely the same level of flexibility as Logitechs profiler for example which you get for free (for logi's equipement).

Sure, but all of those weren't marketed for use on a pc.

Now I will get to the part where I will get technical and explain why this controller is product that is a failure by design. To find the reason for why I was doing so badly I dissassembled it to clean out the pots, because calibration wasn't too accurate either. Here I discovered that I was always last was that I couldn't get full throttle with the left stick as it was blocked in movement by the microswitch of the left shoulder button. I solved that problem by filing a gap in the sticks so it could do full movement. I also replaced the sticks with PS2 type as I prefered the convex shape over the concave ones by MS, they also provide more grip and because these are taller/higher they provide more leverage so the controls feel lighter and more precise.

Another design flaw is within its electronics, the triggers are coupled on a single axis, which means you can't use both triggers at the same time, it's really a mystery to my why they did this and is complained about by many users of this thing. Most of these issues can be consealed for use on a console, but on a pc there are lots of better controllers to choose from, especially for that budget.

To stay on topic, if you want a controller to use for fighting games the xbox360 controller is already no option as the d-pad isn't up to the task, the PS controller is much better in that respect. An arcade stick might be even better but those things are rather expensive, I don't know if there are adapters for Genesis/Megadrive controllers, but those are maybe the best for these type of games.

I own only PlayStation controllers, a PlayStation ASCII Specialized Joystick and a XBOX360 controller.

For me, and this is my individual, personal opinion after years of gaming.

The best and most comfortable controller ever for me is the original PlayStation controller SCPH-1080, it gives me the most comfort in all games, including fighting games. It's not good for racing games that are using analog steering.

ASCII Specialized Joystick is very fun with fighting games and SHMUPS but it needs a lot of practice to master.

XBOX360 controller is indeed fantastic...for racing games and for racing games only, it provides a perfect intuitive steering. In my case it is useless for any other genre than racing games. It just doesn't give me the precision I need in other games. For me ,oher games are just unplayable with this controller.

As I said this is my personal opinion. Everyone has the right to have his own opinion and this is mine.

I found them cheaper here.

There's always that. I personally refuse to do business with eBay due to their anti-seller policies, but this isn't the time or the place to get into that.

Things are generally cheaper on eBay when you do find them there. Otherwise I'm not sure what the point of buying them there is.

I got a SFIV arcade stick and the Logitech gamepad both of which I use for SFIV and other fighting games.
But my favourite controller of all time is the Sega Saturn one (I have an actual Sega Saturn more than 10 years back), 6 buttons on the face and brilliant D-pad. Perfect for fighting games. Looking in local shops for the PC USB version of it badly, can't find it yet.

Normally I'd sort of agree with you, but the 360 controller has a bad d-pad in a bad place. Not at all what you want for 2D fighting games.
Ah yes, this man gets it.
Well, now you're just sounding like a fanboy. You need to learn the difference between subjectivity and objectivity. Your opinion is not fact. :P

I happen to rank the controllers of recent times (greatest to worst) Gamecube > 360 > Wii Classic controller > Dual Shock, but I wouldn't recommend the Gamecube or 360 controllers for 2D fighting games on account of them both having hard to reach and kind of crappy d-pads.

It can't be the electronics since any game with native Xbox controller support allows for independent use of both triggers. It's something about the drivers/libraries. True, by default Windows does treat them as one axis which is a problem for older games but when specifically developing software with the Xbox controller in mind nothing is holding you back from making the game support both triggers seperately (I know because I've made a few games that do so - only thing I had to do was using a special DLL for Xbox controller support). And as far as I can tell there's also workarounds to make older games use them independently, would only require some simple programming.

You're right, it's not a hardware flaw, it's all software.

Basically, Microsoft didn't bother to give it proper DirectInput drivers because they want everyone to use Xinput (their new crossplatform 360 and Windows library). This has mostly worked and now a lot of games have awful unconfigurable controller support that only works with 360 controllers and the few third party ones that have switched to xinput, thanks Microsoft!

Yeah, but it still shouldn't keep people from creating a decent configuration tool in style of the Logitech Profiler for Xbox Controllers, right? A couple of years ago I found all sorts of open source DLLs that allowed to customize the Xbox button layout or emulate Xbox input with any controller. I hardcoded my own layout but it should be possible to read the config from external files which would mean that it's possible to create an app that allows for convenient re-configuration and even setting up deadzones (the biggest problems about Xbox controllers, IMHO). Dang, I'll have to look into this matter some more.

Hori

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/118515-13-hori-fighting-stick-xbox