In the Fall this year gamers will have something to look forward to, Microsoft’s Xbox Elite Wireless Controller for Xbox and PC that was announced at the company’s E3 2015 press conference. While the souped-up accessory won’t come cheap at $149.99 it does promise to deliver a more thrilling ride for game enthusiasts. In Xbox chief Phil Spencer’s words, it’s “an elite controller for the elite gamer.”

The pad is customizable in various ways, adapting to a player’s hands and style, or for a particular game. For instance there are four interchangeable paddles that can easily be attached without having to use tools; the thumbsticks and D-pads can be swapped for more responsive playing and Hair Trigger Locks can be adjusted for speedy shooting in shoot-em-ups or faster acceleration in racing games. All this can be fine-tuned with the controller app, available for Xbox One Windows 10, so you can adjust trigger sensitivity to get maximum output at 50% finger movement. You can also assign button mapping and create controller profiles that suit certain games (profiles are unlimited and saved in the cloud). Only two profiles at one time can be loaded onto to the controller, which can be changed during games using Profile Switch. The point in having this is some players will prefer different configurations for different parts of games, such as machine-gunning hordes of enemies and picking them off with a sniper’s rifle.

Wear and tear is always a concern with big gamers, and Microsoft says the Elite controller is built to last. The thumbstick shafts, D-pads, and paddles are made of stainless steel, while the thumbsticks are surrounded by reinforced rings to provide less friction and smoother action. Microsoft also says that the rubberized diamond grip gives better control with less effort needed by the player.

The controller comes with a 3.5 mm headset jack; 4 paddles; 6 thumbsticks (2x standard, tall, doomed); 2 D-pads: faceted and standard; AA batteries; USB cable and a carrying case. At the moment you’ll need to connect the controller to PC via USB, until Microsoft’s Wireless Adapter comes out later this year.

Photo credit: Microsoft Xbox