New leaked images seem to have revealed a digital Xbox Series X.
As reported by The Verge, the all-white console shows that it has the same familiar dimensions and shape of the regular Xbox Series X. The big difference, visually, is that the long vertical opening on the left side of the front of the console, where discs can be inserted, is missing.
Verge’s source, Exputer, claims that there are several minor upgrades made to the insides as well. For example, there’s a new heatsink, that may improve performance for the platform.
Exputer also claims that this new SKU for the Xbox Series X is coming this June or July, and priced between $ 399 to $ 449. All things considered, this looks very similar to the slimmer revision of the PlayStation 5. The main difference being that Microsoft is giving their fans a price cut.
If this console does get released, it raises questions about other rumored hardware products from Xbox. A few months ago, some documents sharing Microsoft’s hardware plans were accidentally leaked. Those plans included Brooklin, a promised bigger revision for the Xbox Series X, that goes so far as to change form factor to a cylinder, from a trapezoid.
You may not remember about Brooklin because Phil Spencer, then the head of Team Xbox, released a statement that the leaks revealed cancelled projects, and that they will announce their hardware plans at a later time.
And then the rumor spread around that Microsoft was foregoing the mid cycle console refresh idea, in favor of jumping into the 10th console generation earlier than Sony. If this rumor is true, Microsoft may be doing this shift in as early as 2026.
The thing is, with all these rumors going around, who can trust any of them when it comes to Microsoft hardware? For all we know, this version of the console really isn’t that different than the others. It may be that this version of the console has an optical drive after all, or a way to upgrade with a new optical drive.
Now, we have recently been covering a lot of news about Microsoft Gaming making money outside of their hardware, so this rumor certainly comes unexpected. But perhaps this should reassure Xbox fans that the company is definitely still interested in selling more Xboxes. We recently covered Phil Spencer talking openly about making an Xbox Series handheld, but apparently, Microsoft is making many kinds of hardware.
So, there’s a real possibility that this image is real. But this model, which could be a prototype, may never make it to market at all. Xbox could ultimately choose a different direction, and these pictures may simply show us a casing that they don’t decide to mass produce after all.
In any case, this is certainly an interesting leak. It makes one wonder if there are even more Xbox prototypes out there in the wild, just waiting for someone to leak them. But this will really boil down to hardware fanfiction. If you really want to know what Xbox is releasing next, you should just wait for when they actually reveal it.
