Eight wireless Xbox One controllers can be connected to the console at once, Microsoft has revealed.

The figure was confirmed on the Xbox One website, which also revealed that each controller carries a 30 foot wireless range.

The number is double that of Xbox 360 which only included support for four simultaneous controllers.

PlayStation 3 allowed players to hook up seven controllers at once, but it isn't yet clear how many connected controllers PS4 will support.

Xbox One controllers integrate a new infra-red technology that allow for "seamless profile and controller pairing", which lets the console see which player is holding each controller and reflect it in-game accordingly.

http://www.videogamer.com/news/eight_xbox_one_controllers_can_be_connected_to_the_console_at_once.html

thats twice as many as 360 and one more than PS3

That's really good... the four support for 360 was weird even if almost 99% of the games didn't use more than four controllers.

I'm the only to think weird 7 for PS3? Why not 8? Odd number lol

Because of the LEDs. It's impossible to display 8 when only two leds are active and you just have numbers 1 - 4. 

I suppose better than 4, but not a huge deal. I may have played with 5 controllers on my PS3 once or twice, 4 is the best number probably

Well, I could see a battle royal wrestling mode would have 8 players as cool.  Trying to think what else though.

Psh, Microsoft is always copying The 3DO Company!

FIFA with 7 people is really awesome, but you'll need a big ass TV. Now, FIFA with 11 people would be even more awesome. But as it seems, we won't get that even with Next-Gen. Pity. 

Imagine FIFA with 22 people... Pure awesomeness, lulz

Ohhhhh makes sense... so simple and I thought weird... thanks.

4 controller is the best number BTW... I just used four in LittleBigPlanet.

I actually play Fifa with 6-7 people. It's funny to see how badly coordinated we play with that many people. Had a 360 for 5 years and never knew it had a limit of 4.

This has been known for a while. However, you can only have 6 profiles logged into the console at once. So, the fact that it can support up to 8 controllers is useless if you can't have 8 players.

Therefore the effective number of controllers supported is 6.