There has been a myriad of leaks and emails coming out about the future of Xbox consoles, controllers and new products as well as Microsofts intentions for purchases of companies and expansion in the gaming market. This is your Xbox Rumor Roundup for September 19th!
Buying Nintendo, Valve, ZeniMax and WB Interactive
In 1999 Microsoft took a shot at acquiring Nintendo. They made an offer to buy the company which made the Nintendo executives “laugh their asses off” according to a 2021 Bloomberg report. In an email from 202, Phil Spencer told Microsoft’s CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Chris Capossela and EVP Takeshi Numoto that “Nintendo is THE prime asset for us in Gaming and today Gaming is our most likely path to consumer relevance.” Spencer continued “I’ve had numerous conversations with the LT (Leadership Team) of Nintendo about tighter collaboration and feel like if any US company would have a chance with Nintendo we are probably in the best position. …Nintendo is sitting on a big pile of cash.” He closed out the email with “getting Nintendo would be a career moment… It’s just taking a long time for Nintendo to see that their future exists off of their own hardware. A long time…. :-).” In the email there is one line talking about the Board of Directors seeing the full writeup on Nintendo (and Valve) and them supporting either opportunity if it arises.
Based on this, Phil really really really wants to acquire Nintendo and this is basically his Golden Goose. He also had discussed purchasing Warner Bros. and ZeniMax and noted the issue with buying Warner Bros. Interactive was that they would not own the intellectual property which could cause issues with the longevity of the purchase. Obviously, the ZeniMax acquisition did go through in 2021.
Xbox Series X|S Redesign and new Controller Rumor Roundup
Let’s start with the Series S. A refreshed Series S was just released but in the leaks there is the Ellewood – Xbox Series S Refresh. In this it refresh it would have more internal storage (1TB), faster Wi-Fi (6E), BT 5.2, reduced power and a new southbridge to modernize IO and sustainability all for the same $299 price. Now with the Series S that was just released it was at $350. The Ellewood refresh is scheduled to launch at the end of August 2024.
The Series X gets a refresh with code-name Brooklin. This would be an all digital Series X (no disc drive). According to the leaks this would have faster Wi-Fi (6E), BT 5.2, 6nm die, more internal storage (2TB), new rounded design, USB-C front port with power delivery, new immersive controller, reduced power by 15%, 20% lower standby power. All this for the same $500 price as the current Series X is expected to launch October 2024. There is also another Xbox Series X code-named Uther which is denoted as in XDL (Xbox Design Lab) and has the same specs as the Brooklin refresh.
All three systems will ship with the upgraded controller code-named Sebile. The Sebile will feature Xbox Wireless 2, Direct to Cloud, Bluetooth 5.2. It will also include precision haptic feedback, VCA haptics that double as speakers, and accelerometer alongside quieter buttons and thumbsticks.
Next-Gen Console Xbox Rumor Roundup
In the leaks also came information about the next generation of Xbox Consoles. These are targeting release in 2028 per the documents, which would be an 8 year cycle for the Series X|S. According to the documents, the next generation will be a hybrid game platform that will enable new levels of performance beyond the capabilities of the client hardware alone. According to the slide, it would be an ARM64 CPU with an AMD (Navi 5) GPU which would include “next gen DirectX ray tracing,” machine learning super resolution, Dynamic Global Illumination. One interesting thing to note is that there is a line for Thin OS with a less than $99 consumer Handheld Device.
Xbox Handheld and Mobile Controller
Looking through the leaks, it also appears that Microsoft is finally looking to kick open the door into the handheld console arena. Microsoft has partnered with other companies to put Xbox Cloud gaming on their systems. Not much is known about the proposed handheld as it was in a shot of their slides. There is also a mobile controller similar to the Backbone which would be able to be used for a consumers own device.
This is everything that has come out from the leaks. This was your Xbox Rumor Roundup, what do you think about the leaks from Xbox? Let us know in the comments below or on our Twitter account by clicking here. Stay tuned to Culture Splat for more content.
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