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If you were asleep last night or playing a game, as I was, you may have missed it when a waterfall of leaked court documents made their way online. Those court documents are from the ongoing court battle between the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Microsoft about the latter's bid to acquire Activision Blizzard. There has been a lot leaked from these documents, so expect to read more as the day goes on.
Nothing here has been officially announced by Microsoft. Plans change all the time. However, this is what was included in official Microsoft documents submitted in their FTC court battle. I have to imagine that most all of this was not meant to be made public, at least not without heavy redactions that don't seem to have been made. Interestingly, it seems as though the leak did not come from the court itself, but from Microsoft mistakenly publishing the link on September 14. The link containing those court documents has since been pulled.
One of the big reveals in these leaked documents points towards a mid-generation refresh of the Xbox Series consoles. There are refreshes planned by Microsoft for the Xbox Series X in August 2024 and Series S for October 2024.
The refreshed Series X is codenamed Brooklin and looks like a cylinder. In fact, it very much resembles that Apple iMac that released a few years back if you remember those. Xbox Series X "Brooklin" will be a digital-only console, similar to the current Xbox Series S. The technical specs leaked for Brooklin say that it would include the same 12 teraflops of performance, support for up to 4K resolution, and 16GB of RAM. The big upgrade here comes in the storage size, which looks to be 2TB.
When compared to the current Series X, Brooklin would have a slightly smaller (15%) power supply. It would also feature a new low-power standby mode that would be 20% of the current Xbox Series S standby mode. Microsoft also notes that Brooklin would ship in packaging that is 100% recyclable. Brooklin is expected by the end of October 2024 at a price of $499.
The Xbox Series S refresh is codenamed Ellewood and includes 10GB of RAM. Ellewood would offer 1TB of storage. Ellewood would be out near the end of August 2024 at a price of $299.
Both Brooklin and Ellewood would feature Bluetooth 5.2 support, Wi-Fi 6E, an added USB-C port, and support for the also leaked Xbox Wireless 2 controller. Both consoles are planned to be announced in or summer of 2024, possibly around the same time as the Summer Game Fest.
Microsoft is planning to release a new Xbox controller, currently codenamed Sebile. This controller features an accelerometer for gyro support and will utilize Bluetooth 5.2. The new controller also seem to feature haptic feedback in lieu of simple rumble. It will also feature "quieter" buttons and new, modular thumbsticks.
The new Xbox controller is expected to be announced in 2024 and released near the end of May 2024 at a price of $70.
