Hi guys, for my current project, I want to include a God of War-like combat system, but my recent attempts with a keyboard and mouse have made it pretty difficult to control. Then I tried it with the Xbox 360 controller, and it was pretty cool. The problem is, not many people have the controllers, and I don't know if it would sell well with it as a requirement. Any ideas?

Well, no, it wouldn't. Whether you care about that is another story.

Make it work the best you can with the keyboard and/or keyboard+mouse.
Dual analog sticks (joypads) can be had for $15-20: make your game play well on these too.
If your game plays even better with the X-Box 360 controller (using analog triggers?), give detailed reasons why you think it works better (perhaps get quotes from customers); if people like your game with keyboard/mouse/joypad, it's not a far stretch for them to purchase a new controller (hard-core driving sim fans purchase driving wheels: they take up a lot of room and can't normally be mounted unless playing the game; yet driving sim developers highly recommend wheels, and their customers buy them).

My current game plays best with a dual analog controller (including the X-Box 360 controller); however it also plays well with just the keyboard. Advanced features of the game are best utilized with a dual analog stick; if customers like the game, and want a competitive advantage, they'll use/purchase a new controller (PC FPS players buy customized keyboards/mice; they played well enough with the standard keyboard/mouse, but upgraded because they wanted the best possible controller system).

Additionally, allow the player to completely remap input for any combination of controller/mouse/keyboard.

Thus, make the game fun with traditional/common input devices, then after the sale, recommend an upgrade to <insert specialized controller here> that makes the game even more fun/different (adds more value to your game).

Quote: Original post by FullThrottle
....The problem is, not many people have the controllers?

You answered your own question. If you want to do it for fun go ahead. If you want the product to sell then limiting it in this way would be a bad business decision.

I'd love to see more gamepad-required games. But the problem is people play these games on consoles and don't have gamepads on the PC - even though I'm sure you can use your PS2/xbox/360 controller on the PC.