Xbox One design had over 75 iterations, 200 for the controller

In the two-plus years it took to design the Xbox One, industrial designer Carl Ledbetter and his team produced "more than 75 iterations of the console," Microsoft revealed today in an "inside story" with the designer.

And that Kinect that comes bundled with it? It had over 100 iterations. Having to redesign that perfect Xbox 360 controller resulted in more than 200 iterations. These are just a few of the details revealed in the story focused on the Xbox One's design.

“We wanted to take every component of what people love about Xbox and amplify it, but also make it disappear into the living room – to stay in the background, robust and reliable,” Ledbetter said. To that end, the story recounts Microsoft's need to create a console that's "sophisticated yet approachable" — a design that clearly shows Xbox One is a "premiere gaming console."

Redesigning the controller was met with apprehension initially. According to Ledbetter, “there was never a direct ask for us to make it better. People were a little apprehensive, like, ‘We have a great controller. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.’” In the end, there are said to be 40 improvements to the controller — from the shape of the joysticks to the finish of the buttons — and all of them were tested by more than "1,000 pairs of hands… throughout the course of design evaluations."

“We put a lot of time into all of the details,” Ledbetter added. “The overall product is really premium. It really feels designed, engineered and crafted in quality.”

What do you think of the final Xbox One design?