Out of every single video game purchase I’ve ever made in my life, across games, consoles and accessories, I don’t think I’ve made a more sensible purchase than Microsoft’s Xbox Elite controller. First released in 2015, it was—and remains, even with a successor on the way!—expensive as hell. As Phil Spencer said at the time, it was “an elite controller for the elite gamer”. Back then, based on just Microsoft’s original pitch, I saw the price and got ready to ignore the entire project, saw the customisation options I would never use and figured the controller to be a luxury, and figured the whole idea was just something for rich kids and people who are sponsored to sit in Gamer Chairs. It was being sold as an indulgence, targeted at a niche, implied it was something fancy, something optional. It was wrong, though, to think of the Elite controller in those terms. It was more like a good pair of boots. You wouldn’t think twice about spending $150 on a pair of well-made winter boots if you...