Coming off the heels of the February Xbox Podcast that addressed concerns about the platform’s future, a new rumour has surfaced that Microsoft is gearing up to release a cheaper, digital-first edition of the Xbox Series X… and it’s white!
As reported by the team at Exputer.com, the new model of the Series X is said to sport a 1TB SSD and is expected to cost between $50-$100 less than the existing iteration.
No discs, no worries?
If such a model is truly in the works, then it falls in line with a growing trend that was kicked off a few years back by Microsoft itself of pushing in a more digital-focused direction for consoles.
Back in 2019, during the Xbox One era, the company introduced the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition. Considering some in the community jeeringly referred to it as the “Xbox One SAD Edition,” it almost goes without saying that particular model never really garnered any significant popularity. Even so, it seems like that was merely Microsoft’s way of testing the waters.
Considering the Xbox Series S launched right alongside the Series X as a smaller, cheaper, all-digital alternative, the proposed arrival of an all-digital iteration of the Series X seems to point to an interesting future. The rumoured new version of the Series X is said to match the all-white colour scheme of the Series S, and will include some technical refinements such as an improved heatsink and improved chipset.
Such minor alterations are traditional with mid-generation refreshes of consoles, something that Microsoft has almost always done. Thus, while this is all still unconfirmed until an official announcement arrives, it does land in the realm of plausibility.
As the Xbox team continues to lean into services like Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming, in addition to allegedly shutting down its departments responsible for the handling of physical releases, it seems that Microsoft just may very well become the first of the big three console makers to formally move into completely digital territory in the generation to come.
According to Exputer’s sources, this new all-digital Series X is said to arrive sometime in Summer 2024; perhaps in either June or July. If this is the case, an announcement could be imminent, unless Microsoft chooses to have a quick marketing push and reveals it mere weeks before launch.
The path ahead
The future of Xbox is an interesting one. Now that Microsoft has formally acquired Activision-Blizzard, along with past acquisitions like Zenimax and Mojang, it isn’t being shy about setting itself up to be one of gaming’s largest publishing houses across all platforms. An all-digital future means even more control for such publishers, as is continually evidenced by game delistings and also, somewhat similarly, storefront closures.
If this all-digital Series X turns out to be legitimate, one has to wonder what will come of the existing model.
Typically, such mid-gen refreshes tend to replace the initial version of a system, such as how the Xbox 360 Elite replaced the problematic launch model and the Xbox One S replaced the dinosaur-like launch edition of the Xbox One. Thus, if history repeats itself, then only a portion of the Xbox Series userbase would have access to physical games, assuming Microsoft doesn’t release some sort of add-on disc reader like that of what Sony has done with the digital edition of the PS5.
Ultimately, time will tell as to exactly what Microsoft has in store for the future of the Xbox Series hardware lineup.
Microsoft’s heads did choose to make it known during the recent Podcast presentation that the next-gen Xbox will offer a significant “technological leap,” but that’s not expected for at least another three or four years, given average console lifespans. In the meantime, the company will surely try to garner any attention it can for the existing Series family; especially when faced with the continued competition from the PS5, Switch and, most curiously, its enigmatic successor.
