We now have a new rumor suggesting that Microsoft is looking into new hardware, including a digital Xbox Series X.
Nick “Shpeshal Nick” Baker recently said this in the most recent episode of the XboxEra podcast:
“What I have heard is, Microsoft is currently looking into a digital-only series X.”
Nick received word about Microsoft’s plans from two independent sources, so he’s fairly certain that the rumor is accurate.
Launched in 2020, the Xbox Series X is notable for being significantly larger than other gaming consoles, even bigger than the NEC PC-FX of 1994. Microsoft lists its dimensions as 5.94 x 5.94 x 11.85 in (15.1 x 15.1 x 30.1cm), and its weight at 9.8 lbs (4.4kg).
The Xbox Series X also features a custom 7 nm AMD Zen 2 CPU, with eight cores running at 2.8 GHz. To match, it has an integrated RDNA 2 based GPU, and 16 GB GDDR6 SDRAM. It also uses SSD drives as storage.
In other words, Microsoft has outfitted it with the most high end hardware that was available from AMD at the time of its manufacture. As Microsoft has also provided consumers with choice with a disc-less, less powerful, and cheaper Xbox Series S, the Xbox Series X exists to fill the need among Xbox gamers who want the best performance, and can afford to pay for it.
It’s not really clear why there would be a need for a digital only Xbox Series X. People who have an Xbox Series X now are not obliged to use the disc drive. Even if it could make the console cheaper, it won’t drop price that much compared to the Xbox Series S. So what is the point?
Nick’s co-host in the podcast, Jon Clarke, speculated that removing the hard drive could make the console smaller and lighter as well, but that’s also doubtful. You can see from this Xbox Series X teardown video by Spawn Wave that the disc drive may take up quite a bit of space, but it’s hardly even one third of the space inside an Xbox Series X.
Now, it is possible that Microsoft is foregoing conventional wisdom and making this disc-less Xbox Series X because they have confirmed that there is consumer demand for it. Microsoft knows why gamers would want this version of the console. Even if there will be gamers who mock or complain about it, if Microsoft sees the sales for it, they would have won on it.
Nick also said “There are also plans for other hardware in 2025.” This might include the long rumored Keystone, a dedicated game streaming device that Phil Spencer actually showed off in his shelves last year. He said that was a prototype, so maybe if this does happen it will look completely different.
Of course, we can’t ignore that Phil himself also talked about the recently released ROG Ally. It’s entirely possible that Microsoft could work with ASUS to make an official Microsoft/Xbox version of the ROG Ally, or even make a new Windows portable for themselves. Nothing’s the limit for Microsoft, especially with a pending acquisition set to make them the largest game publisher in the industry.
