If you find yourself browsing the various Xbox sub-reddits occasionally, you might have noticed a post that got a lot of attention over the weekend showing an Xbox Elite controller that had developed a very strange model.
The person who uploaded the photo simply asked “what could this be?”, which ultimately generated over 1,000 comments and over 2,500 upvotes on the Xbox Series X subreddit alone.
Here’s a preview of the original message:
What it could be, details in XboxSeriesX comments
So what’s the verdict so far? Ultimately, the “best” comment that seems to be the most universally accepted is that the driver went through a process called “crazing”, possibly due to some sort of cleaner:
100footer on Reddit: “It’s called cracking. It’s the soft-touch coating that peels away from the hard plastic underneath. In the printing world, we usually see it when a strong chemical is used on a sensitive plastic or coating. Maybe hand cleaner or sanitizer was used?”
However, others have suggested several different theories about what could have happened:
The original post reported that they thought the problem was with their charger, as they changed it and the problem did not return. So if this ends up happening to you, this might be the first thing to check!
Whatever the underlying cause, it’s been an interesting discussion to follow over the past 24 hours, and we’re curious to know what your theories are about it and if it’s something you’ve ever had to deal with.
Tell us in the comments!