Logitech took a stock hit and was flooded with negative and sarcastic reviews on its Amazon page after it was revealed the Swiss computer manufacturer was behind the video game controller used to navigate the ill-fated Titan submersible.
According to OceanGate, the 21-foot sub was made with a handful of off-the-shelf components, including scaffolding poles for the sub’s ballast and a video game controller in place of a steering wheel.
Specifically, a modified Logitech F710 wireless controller was used to operate the $250,000-a-seat vessel.
Logitech’s US-listed shares have fallen 3.4% since Monday — the day the news broke that the vessel carrying five passengers was missing after it lost connection with its mothership, Polar Prince.
The shares — which had plunged as much as 11% on Wednesday — were recently at $55.71 in early Friday trades.
The controller is listed on Amazon for $49.99 and only has four stars.
It’s most commonly used as a controller for video games on the Playstation console, but its Amazon listing shows it can also connect with computer games.
The listing’s question-and-answer section has already been inundated with sarcastic queries like “Can I use this for my submersible?” and “Would you recommend this controller for piloting a tourist submarine? Asking for a friend, thanks!”
Meanwhile, a cheaper Logitech game controller, the F310 model that’s listed as “Amazon’s Choice” for $24.99, also boasts comments since the submersible began its doomed voyage to the Titanic wreck trolling the product.
“Look elsewhere for your submarine needs” one user wrote alongside a one-star review.
“Controller sank my submarine,” another penned in a poor review, which nearly 200 others voted was “helpful.”
In a two-star review, yet another customer warned: “DO NOT USE THIS FOR STEERING A SUBMARINE. HUGE. MISTAKE.”
Another commentator sarcastically rated the plastic controller five stars, saying: “Perfect for controlling my submersible. I love finding economic solutions to my problems.”
Unlike a normal submarine, a submersible is unable to get to the bottom of the ocean and back without its mothership.
For Titan, that was Polar Prince, which it depended on for navigation to the Titanic wreck, which lies 12,500 feet below the surface.
OceanGate’s chief executive Stockton Rush once bragged that his submersible invention operated with simple objects like the video game controller.
Rush showed off the Logitech F710, joking that “this is not your grandfather’s submersible” while on a CBS segment aired last November.
“It shouldn’t take a lot of skill,” he said of navigating the vessel 2.4 miles below sea.
He then held up a vintage gray gaming device, saying with a smile: “We run this whole thing off this game controller.”
Rush, 61, was one of five passengers on the Titan, which is now believed to have imploded, killing everyone on board.
Also aboard Titan was Titanic specialist Paul-Henri Nargeolet, UK billionaire explorer Hamish Harding and Pakistani billionaire and mogul Shanzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Sulaiman.
After debris from the vessel was found on the ocean floor, it was revealed that a top-secret US Navy acoustic detection system picked up sounds from the implosion.
The US Coast Guard announced the passengers’ death on Thursday afternoon.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
