Forget Microsoft and Sony’s standard controllers – you can now get Yorkshire Tea game controllers from the British tea brand.
The company first had a Yorkshire Tea Xbox controller concept designed by artist Pope (aka PopeArt) last year, and now it’s officially launched it, along with a PlayStation one.
They are priced at £150 each, and Yorkshire Tea says this is because only a small amount have been made.
“This all came about because PopeArt (controller designer extraordinare) tweeted us to show a design he’d come up with,” Yorkshire Tea said. “We really liked it, his followers really liked it and quite a lot of ours did too, so we had a bunch of Zoom meetings and turned it from a pipe dream into an actual thing you can hold in your real, human hands.
“Sorry they’re not cheaper! Believe it or not we’re not making money on these. It’s a small run of a Popeart custom design which we originally pondered just making one off as a marketing thing, and then thought: what if we actually make them available to buy?
“But we don’t do this sort of thing a lot so the volume was a total guess,” the brand continued. “So we’re reading all of the comments and sharing what people are saying with the team. Especially the calls for mugs and teapots to finally come out.
“The mugs and teapots are truly on the way – they 100% exist and they’re being strength tested right now down in Stoke, which is taking aaaages. For reasons that are very important but still make the social media department a bit stressed.”
The controllers boast a custom PopeArt design, a soft touch finish and a custom controller button set, and a ‘special button that boils your kettle (not really)’.
The blurb on the Yorkshire Tea website reads: “The power of tea. Picture the scene. You’re facing down a boss with three heads and a hammer as big as a truck, armed with nothing but a rusty sword you looted from a guard. Gulping, you look down at the controller in your hands, wondering if victory is even possible. And you see it – the reassuring branding of your favourite tea. “Yes”, you say to yourself. “I can do this”.
“You begin the fight and are immediately one-shotted. You’re clearly way too low level for this area. On behalf of Yorkshire Tea, we would like to apologise for this and any other in-game mishaps caused by the powerful feeling of self-belief our controller will fill you with.”
And as stated, Arsenal and England goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale grabbed one of the Yorkshire Tea game controllers:
The news comes after Yorkshire Tea partnered with Insomnia Gaming Festival earlier this year.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
