Alleged Xbox Series X Refresh Revealed in Colossal FTC Court Docs Leak

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Microsoft's Xbox Series X refresh is all-digital and will come standard with 2TB of storage

Xbox Series X Refresh
(Image credit: Microsoft)

A massive leak has just placed all of Microsoft’s cards on the table regarding its future Xbox game console plans. The leak was courtesy of unredacted documents (first noticed at Resetera) uploaded as part of the ongoing FTC vs. Microsoft court case related to the latter’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. As ever with leaks, take the news with a pinch of salt.

Not only do the docs provide specs for the alleged upcoming Xbox Series X refresh (codenamed Brooklin) and a new controller design (Sebile), but there are also images. The Xbox Series X refresh features an all-new design that is no longer a box at all. Instead, it is a tall, black cylinder somewhat reminiscent of the old “trash can” Mac Pro. This design seems best suited for sitting vertically, although we wonder if Microsoft will include a plastic cradle accessory in the box to sit it horizontally on a shelf or entertainment center. 

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Xbox Series X Refresh
(Image credit: Microsoft)

You'll be disappointed if you were hoping for a performance boost with the refresh. Instead, Microsoft says it's using a new 6nm die shrink of the current AMD Ryzen SoC for improved efficiency. The reduced power demands also mean that the internal PSU is now 15 percent smaller and the new Xbox Series X's standby mode only consumes 20 percent of the power required by the current console.

Other changes include doubling the internal SSD capacity from 1TB to 2TB and upgrading the wireless radios to Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6E. However, the most controversial change will no doubt be the removal of the internal Blu-ray drive. Yes, the Xbox Series X refresh is all-digital, or as Microsoft's internal slide proclaims, "Now adorably all digital." For gamers with a firm grip on physical media, this is a shocking reminder of the direction the industry is heading towards.

Xbox Series X Refresh

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft’s Xbox Series X console will also come with a redesigned wireless controller with Xbox Wireless 2, Direct-to-Cloud and Bluetooth 5.2 support. The controller includes precision haptic feedback, quieter buttons, modular thumbsticks, an accelerometer and “VCA haptics [that] double as speakers.” The new controller also has a swappable and swappable battery pack.

According to the leaked roadmap, Microsoft’s new Xbox wireless controller will launch in June 2024, while the Xbox Series X refresh will launch in November 2024 for $499. An Xbox Series S refresh (Ellewood) with 1TB of storage, Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6E will land in September for $299. Again, take the news with some salt until it can be verified.

Brandon Hill
Brandon Hill

Brandon Hill is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware. He has written about PC and Mac tech since the late 1990s with bylines at AnandTech, DailyTech, and Hot Hardware. When he is not consuming copious amounts of tech news, he can be found enjoying the NC mountains or the beach with his wife and two sons.

12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Elusive Ruse
    MS going with Xbox Slim while Sony going for PS5 Pro for next year, power efficiency is nice and all but I'd rather pay to get better specs than for compromises.
    Reply
  • garrett040
    Im going to "adoribly" not buy it. Sure its more power efficient but your paying the same price for losing features.
    Reply
  • gggplaya
    $500 for an all digital Xbox?? I'm assuming they'll sell a disc drive accessory, otherwise they just put the nail in their coffin.

    If going all digital and not increasing gaming power, just get the Sony PS5 Digital for $400. I don't see a reason to buy the Xbox unless you really really want their terrible exclusives.

    The next Sony Playstation 5 is leaked to also be all digital for $400. But offer a USB disc drive accessory. This will literally please everyone. Cheaper initial price, but can still play with discs and their older ps4 games. The disc drive will not work on older PS5's. I'm assuming because there must be an encryption chip on both sides of the usb connection.
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    Its likely the mac trash can :) Ms is new apple
    Reply
  • AgentBirdnest
    So, the only significant improvement over the original is a 2TB drive, instead of 1TB.
    I'm betting they'll use that as a justification for keeping the $500 price tag.
    Even though high-speed 2TB SSDs are about half the price of what 1TB drives cost in Fall 2020...
    Reply
  • gggplaya
    AgentBirdnest said:
    So, the only significant improvement over the original is a 2TB drive, instead of 1TB.
    I'm betting they'll use that as a justification for keeping the $500 price tag.
    Even though high-speed 2TB SSDs are about half the price of what 1TB drives cost in Fall 2020...

    I just bought a 2TB samsung 980 pro with built in heatsink for the ps5 for $99. So with a PS5 Digital for $400, you get about 600GB of on board usuable space + 2TB for the same price as this xbox. This xbox is a very hard sell.
    Reply
  • ohio_buckeye
    Just actually picked up a used series x on eBay for 385 shipped. Used of course. But not a bad deal and working great. This should hold me over a few years. I did have the series s that I traded, but I do notice a little difference in performance.

    As far as all digital you could kind of see where they were going with the series s and game pass. It’s nice to be able to have discs but then if you totally cut off the used market I suppose that means more game sales which could be a death blow to places like GameStop. I could see smaller places surviving that deal in classic stuff though.
    Reply
  • Giroro
    No price drop, no games, no BluRay....

    It looks like Microsoft still has absolutely no idea why anybody would buy an Xbox.
    Reply
  • ohio_buckeye
    Actually as far as games I do disagree. Keep in mind they may soon be closing the activision deal. Also, if you ever played the old fable games, it looks they are rebooting that. I also have seen things saying there’s a new Indiana Jones have possibly around the corner. Another one that’s probably in early stages is project 007.

    Truth be told I’ve been playing on my series x more than my pc lately. As much as we don’t like all digital the truth is if you are on pc like with steam or other pc platforms, you’ve had to see this coming for years. Although I own red dead redemption 2 for Xbox on a disc, almost a pain to insert the disc when you are spoiled to clicking it and it launches with no disc. Though I will say I found a used copy of the original red dead redemption for Xbox 360 that is supposed to upscale to 4K on a series x. Haven’t played that game in years so that could be a fun game with the backwards compatibility.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    Elusive Ruse said:
    MS going with Xbox Slim while Sony going for PS5 Pro for next year, power efficiency is nice and all but I'd rather pay to get better specs than for compromises.
    I don't think the existence of an Xbox Slim means they aren't working on a midcycle upgraded Xbox. Slim's are released to reduce production costs. Microsoft admitted that Series X consoles were sold at a loss at launch of between $100 and $200. I doubt production costs have dropped enough to make it profitable now, so it's unrealistic to expect a price drop even with the loss of features.
    Reply