Microsoft "Totally Underestimated" Xbox One's Elite Controller Demand

Feedback from E3 was that $150 is too expensive, so Microsoft scaled back.

Microsoft's CMO Chris Capossela, spoke about the Xbox One Elite controller, and said that the company wanted to produce more, but the feedback from E3 was that $150 was too expensive.

"Here's the product we totally underestimated," he said. "If I could have built 10 times the number I built, I would have. We got that feedback at E3 that it was awesome, but maybe the price was a little too high, and so that influenced how many we produced."

"On the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving, myself and Kevin Turner our COO, and the guy who runs our stores, David Porter, we go around and visit 30 or 40 different stores," Capossela added. "Best Buy and GameStop and AT&T and Verizon and Microsoft Stores, just to see how things look, and the one thing we heard from everybody was, 'You needed to make way more of these controllers.'"

Every time Microsoft replenishes supply for the Elite controllers, they sell out "instantly," according to Xbox boss Phil Spencer.