We've seen an increasing number of people asking about the status of Xbox Design Lab over the past few weeks, and that's no surprise considering the service has been mostly unavailable for the past six months.
For those who aren't aware, Xbox Design Lab allows you to create your very own custom Xbox controller, but this part of the service has been "temporarily on hold" since January while Xbox switches to a new payment platform.
Here's a look at the message you're greeted with when you visit the Xbox Design Lab website:
At the bottom of the website, there's an FAQ explaining that "purchases will be available once we complete the transition to a new payment platform".
For those who are eager to find out when Xbox Design Lab returns, there's a sign-up button on the yellow banner that allows you to enter your email - so that's a good way to be notified as soon as the service comes back online.
Nevertheless, one of the main reasons for the frustration is the lack of transparency about why it's taking so long, and we're hoping Xbox will have some kind of statement to share ASAP (unless it gets fixed in the next few weeks!).
We'll obviously let you know as soon as we get more details on Xbox Design Lab, and here's hoping we'll be able to create some custom controllers before the end of the year. I've got Microsoft Rewards points saved up for one!
In the meantime, keep in mind that you can still use the Xbox Design Lab website to create custom designs (just without ordering them) as well as downloading 3D printable files for adaptive thumbstick toppers. Fingers crossed it'll be back to full capacity in the near future.