Why Cronus Zen (vs XIM, Collective Minds, Reasnow)
Quick comparison of the four main pad-to-console passthroughs. Why our scripts are Zen-only.
If you’re new to passthrough devices, there are four major players. Short version: we only support Cronus Zen, and here’s why.
Cronus Zen
Widest scripting ecosystem, largest community, most active firmware team. GPC is a proper scripting language (loops, conditionals, state). Costs ~$95. Works on PS5, Xbox Series, PC. The whole community that writes interesting scripts writes them for Zen.
XIM Matrix / XIM Nexus
Great hardware, tiny scripting community. Focused on keyboard/mouse-to-pad emulation more than script injection. If you play mnk, it’s a good choice. If you want scripts, no.
Collective Minds Strike Pack
Cheaper (~$40) but the modding is baked-in, not scripted. Fixed "mods" rather than custom GPC. Fine for casual use. No vendor sells premium scripts for this because the Strike Pack can’t run them.
ReaSnow S1
Chinese import, strong hardware, limited scripting. Active in Asia, niche in NA/EU. We’ve watched it for years; the community around it is small and the firmware update pace is slow.
Why we’re Zen-only
We write our scripts in GPC. GPC runs on Zen. Building for other platforms would mean rewriting in their native scripting (which usually doesn’t exist) or downgrading to fixed-mod builds (which is worse product). We could double our addressable market by adding XIM / Strike Pack support; we’d halve the quality of what we ship. Not the trade we want.
If you don’t have a Zen yet, buy one from cronusmax.com directly. We don’t sell Zens, don’t get affiliate revenue for referring you, don’t care where you get it — just don’t buy the Amazon counterfeits, they’re real.