Hello everyone!

I heard somewhere (I forgot the source) that micro switches are actually better for game controllers. Is this true? And if it is, why?

Only for people with very small fingers.

Or midgets with very large fingers.

What are you comparing them to, what's the other option?

I recall the discussion about game controllers' microswitches like from the 80s and 90s, when cheapo digital (non-analog) gaming controllers on the Commodore 64 and Amiga 500 might have some sort of bent piece of metal as the switches (under the buttons or the directional joystick itself), which would naturally wear down quite fast, ie. those gaming joysticks wouldn't last long. After awhile their buttons or the stick would just stop working when that piece of metal breaks down or doesn't spring back anymore.

And then there were the better joystics with microswitches, which would last longer and be generally better.

Only if they're of good quality, which they rarely are as a few of those switches alone quickly exceed the price of an Xbone controller. And cheap microswitches won't last long with intensive use, so membrame switches aren't that bad TBH.

Personally I also don't like the cheap feel of cheap microswitches, Xbox360 shoulderbuttons for example.

And by the way before anyone asks, microswitches can have any size, it's the switchingdistance that is short (micro).

Wow, this is great information. Thanks guys!

I think I know where this is coming from.
For gamepads and joysticks microswitches are bad news as they're usually from the bad quality type.
For arcade fightingsticks they're good because of sturdyness and long life, hence the good fightingsticks are rather pricey and even if you build them yourself it will cost you money for good components.

How do I know if a controller has good micro switches? I use the Xbox 360 versus fighting pad for PC gaming. Are the micro switches on that gamepad decent?

If they look like this they're probably good.
If they look like this, probably not.

An Xbox360 controller has rubbermembrame on circuitry buttons (A,B,X,Y), similar as most keyboards use, only the shoulderbuttons are (cheaply made) microswitches. The real disadvantage of the Xbox360 controller compared to a fightingstick is the inadequate D-pad and that you have to do all the actions with your thumbs. Though it's also a matter of preference because a fightingstick the buttons are farther apart but you can slam them, still the D-pad stays problematic. Sometimes you can use the analog stick instead, Logitech gamepads have a button which allows you to swap the D-pad with the analog stick for instance, otherwise the game has to support analog input.