IN the third week of September, several highly confidential documents from Microsoft appeared online. The documents were part of Microsoft’s legal case against the US government regulator, the Federal Trade Commission, which was argued in June, with a verdict reached in July.
Among the flood of sensitive information, two stand out the most. For a middle-generation Xbox refresh in 2024, Microsoft is planning to refresh its Xbox Series X/S consoles with all new designs and features.
The Xbox Series X model, codenamed “Brooklin”, will have a cylindrical design compared with the existing model and it will not have a disc drive.
The confidential documents detail that it will have an increased storage capacity of 2TB, a USB-C front port with power delivery and an “all-new, more immersive controller”. “Brooklin” is targeted to be priced the same as the current Xbox Series X model at US$499 (RM2,353), with Microsoft planning to release it in November 2024.
However, before “Brooklin” is available, the Xbox Series S’ new model, codenamed “Ellewood”, is planned to be released in September 2024 at the existing model’s price of US$299 (RM1410).
While its design stays the same, “Ellewood” will have a higher 1TB of storage than the current Xbox Series S’ 512GB, along with the same improved wireless chipsets and power efficiency as “Brooklin”.
Circling back around, the new controller, codenamed “Sebile”, will have “direct-to-cloud” capability and “seamless” pairing and switching between multiple devices. Microsoft further lists that the controller will have quieter buttons and thumbsticks, a rechargeable and swappable battery and modular thumbsticks.
After X/S, beyond “Brooklin” and “Ellewood”, the leaked documents also detail Microsoft’s ambition for the next-gen consoles to surpass the Xbox Series X/S in a pitch slide dated May 2022.
Eyeing a 2028 release, the follow-up to the tech giant’s current consoles will supposedly be a “next generation hybrid game platform” that combines the power of the client and the cloud to “enable new levels of performance beyond the capabilities of the client hardware alone”.
As these were leaked documents made in the past, it is important to keep in mind that plans change, and Microsoft’s timeline for the consoles and such may have shifted or even been scrapped entirely.
