As Microsoft began development of the original Xbox they wanted to make sure they captured the then lucrative Japanese market. Ideally the original Duke controller; which was designed with western hands in mind, wasn't going to cut it for the Japanese market. These first arised when Seamus Blackley first demoed the Duke controller in Japan, where he was able to demonstrate it's adequate size by being able to balance it on his knee. However when a Japanese TV host tried to replicate the same test, it simply fell on the floor with him replying "no". Communication with Japanese developers saw continuous complaints about the size of the controller, so much so Blackley made a spread sheet of the complaints which he comically states "is when things get serious". At this point a new controller had to me made for Japan and done so in time for it's debut release.
Development duties for the new controller would be handed to Stratos, a product design and development studio who had previously worked with Microsoft in creating force feedback triggers for their PC Sidewinder controls. While commercially the controller would be called the "Controller S", during development the controller adopted the name
