Enlarge / OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush shows David Pogue the 2010-era game controller that pilots the Titan sub during a CBS Sunday Morning segment broadcast in November 2022. (credit: CBS Sunday Morning)

In a 2022 CBS Sunday Morning segment, CEO Stockton Rush of deep-water submersible company OceanGate gave journalist David Pogue a fun reveal. “We run the whole thing with this game controller,” Rush said, holding up a Logitech F710 controller with 3D-printed thumbstick extensions. The controller was wireless, and it was the primary method for controlling the Titan submersible, which would soon make a visit to the wreck of the Titanic. Pogue laughed. “Come on!” he said, covering his eyes with his hand.

Journalists loved the controller story, covering the inexpensive F710 and the ways that video game controllers have become common control solutions in various military and spaceflight applications in recent years. After all, if your engineers and pilots grew up using two-stick controllers to waste their friends in Halo multiplayer, why not use that built-in muscle memory for other purposes?

So the use of a video game controller was not in itself a crazy decision. But after the Titan sub imploded on a June 2023 dive to the Titanic site, killing all five passengers including Stockton Rush, the use of a wireless $30 control interface began to look less “cool!” and more “isn’t that kind of risky?” The only question at that point was how long it would take the Logitech F710 to show up in a lawsuit.