Gaming: Is An Xbox Elite Controller Worth The Money

When it comes to gaming, getting a competitive edge is necessary. People spend hours a day honing their skills to master games for bragging rights amongst their friends. While they still linger in the background, today’s gamers aren’t looking to play many solo campaigns unless their friends aren’t online. Most of the popularity comes from shooters like Call of Duty, Halo, and Fortnite. Microsoft and Xbox have come up with a solution to just hours of gaming for a competitive edge, create a better controller.

The original Xbox Elite controller was released in October of 2015. With tremendous success, Xbox upped the ante with the Series 2 in 2019. Despite its popularity, most of the sales are coming from competitive gamers and hardcore gamers, not casual gamers who log just a couple of hours per week. If you’re still one of the people on the outside looking in, is the Xbox Elite controller worth the $179.99? If you’re looking to splurge with your taxes and treat yourself, they’re currently on sale at many retailers for $139.99? But is it worth it?

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Is the controller worth the price, especially for casual gamers? The short answer is yes. As gaming grows over the years, more buttons have been added to controllers to change the way we interact on the screen. What hasn’t changed is the number of hands we have to push those buttons. Controllers have button grids, d-pads, and two joysticks to master on the face of the controller. If you add the 4 triggers on the top of the controllers it becomes a challenge, especially considering you have to still hold the damn thing.

Xbox has a simple solution with their Xbox Elite controller, add more buttons! As overwhelming as that might sound, they actually added them in the right space. Elite controllers have a series of 4 customizable buttons on the back of their controller that can be programmed to be any button on the face. They act like paddle shifters on the back of steering wheels with the more sporter versions of cars these days. How does it help to game?

Easy. If you’re holding a controller most of your hand is wrapped around the backside leaving your thumbs to control everything. By adding the controls on the back, it moves buttons closer to where more of your fingers can control the action. Imagine a shooter game where all you have to lag behind trying to master your button combos. Your thumbs are in the perfect position to just move the characters, and once you overcome years of gaming, don’t have to move your hands to push the A, B, X, or Y. Your hand is already on the buttons. It’s a little bit clunky at first, but once you have that down, triggers and aiming become much faster. That’s not even mentioning being able to swap out the parts for a more comfortable fit.

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The best part about an Xbox Elite controller? Not having to worry about batteries! Nothing is more annoying when gaming than having to stop and switch out batteries. Even with the rechargeable ones, it’s such a pain in the ass. “Why don’t you just recharge it at night?” Yeah, that’s all well and good, but not everyone is in the habit of doing so. Add to the fact, the more you charge anything rechargeable, the quicker the battery craps out. With the Xbox Elite controller, casual gamers can go days, if not weeks without having to recharge. There’s even a light indicator on the front to tell you when the battery is low.

It might be hard to drop over $100 on a controller for something you’re not heavily invested in, but this should not be one of those things. The Xbox Elite controller should be on your “To Buy” list or asked for around any holiday gifts are involved. It may be expensive, but it improves the overall gaming experience.