The new Xbox Elite Controller is built with durability in mind

The original Xbox One Elite Controller launched way back in 2015 and impressed us with its feature set, customisability and sleek look. However, over time the team at Xbox noticed issues raised about the durability of the accessory, which for a premium product, disappointed segments of the Xbox community.

Almost four years later and the team at Xbox have been hard at work redesigning the controller "from the inside out" ensuring its durability in the long run. We caught up with program manager Allan Carranza at E3 to chat about the controller and how it improves on the first version's design.

"When we thought about our second controller in the series we wanted to ensure that we really took fan feedback and built upon the success we had with the first controller," Carranza said.

Some of the biggest criticisms with the previous version were geared toward the durability of the bumpers and grips, which appeared to have quite a high failure rate for an official accessory.

Thankfully, both of these issues have been addressed this time around with Carranza stating that "we really took a lot of focus into ensuring that the durability of the controller is going to be as good until the day you finish using it."

Durability aside, this new Elite Controller also boasts a fair number of new features, including another notch on the trigger adjustability, larger grip areas, stick tension customisation (you can even make it feel like a 360 controller, apparently), an internal battery pack and another option for custom button layouts.

Microsoft has also confirmed that this new Series 2 Elite Controller will be forwards compatible with Project Scarlett, making its £159.99 price tag a slightly easier pill to swallow...