Xbox is in trouble. Court documents reveal a driverless Series X, a new controller, unannounced games and another console

A few months ago, Sony took responsibility for the mistake made by incorrectly editing court documents. Now Xbox joins in, but its problem is noticeably bigger. Some of the documents the company filed in court proceedings with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) were made public in an unredacted form, and Xbox essentially unknowingly laid its cards on the table with its plans for the next few years.

Xbox Series

It has been discussed for a long time whether Microsoft is preparing an intergenerational console or a revision of its existing hardware. It is clear from the documents we are waiting for. Discless version of the Series X console, need to reach the market next year. A more oval version of the console with the same size storage space was created under the name Brooklin 2TBTwice as much compared to the classic X Series. The insides should be almost identical. The only difference is that this version of the console It will support Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.

But bigger changes are coming regarding the power supply. There is a source reduce energy consumption
15% Compared to current consoles. Even in power saving mode it is 20% better. The price tag of the Digital Series X is set at $499.

Although the black version of the S Series with more storage has recently been released, io is mentioned in the documentation. another version of a weaker consoleIt is planned to be held next September. There will probably be a revision along the same lines, but in this case we don’t have that much concrete information.

Support haptic control and gyroscope control

We had to learn about the controller, which appeared under the name Sebile, from official sources by the end of this year. The big news for Xbox will be the addition of an accelerometer, with which it will be possible to use movement in games gyroscope control. This has almost become a standard when playing shooter games on the Switch, and it’s slowly making its way to other platforms.

It is expected to join the S and X Series consoles with improved consoles Xbox Wireless 2 protocol. It should also be able to use Bluetooth 5.2 and connect directly to the cloud. Microsoft also wants to catch up with Sony with haptic feedback. So the controller’s buttons and levers will be quieter, the analogs can be adjusted simultaneously, and when you pick up the controller you will just “wake up”. The new version is part of the package of the Series X model we mentioned above, but of course it can be purchased separately and you can also use it on existing Xboxes.

Next generation Xbox in 2028

To make matters worse, there was also documentation for the brand new console. Should be released within the year 2028 and the company believes it can be done Full transition to cloud gaming with hybrid gamingRunning on local hardware but also leveraging the power of the cloud. A recent example is Microsoft Flight Simulator, and Crackdown 3 was supposed to work similarly, but it didn’t quite work out.

The information is found in a document dated May 2022. At that time, Xbox ARM64 or x64 (Zen 6) technology will be used for the processor. Yep, it’s been over a year and according to the image above, things will really start moving forward in the first quarter of 2023. Since the console needs to rely on xCloud to some extent, their internal hardware may not be as loaded. This also depends on the price. Such hybrid games need to be managed by a piece of hardware For $99 and under. The possibility of a handheld device has not been ruled out.

Graphical innovations of the new Xbox include: Next generation DirectX ray tracing, dynamic global illumination or higher resolution based on machine learning. Xbox plans to focus more extensively on artificial intelligence and machine learning. It’s not just the resolution mentioned above, but these technologies also need to provide: Artificial intelligence game test, creating dialogues, delay response compensation or matchmaking based on player rankings.

If all goes as planned, hardware design is expected to begin next year and the first kits will reach developers in 2027.

Zenimax plans

If you’re not interested in hardware but want to learn something about upcoming games, the documentation holds interesting information for you too. In particular, it concerns the plans of Zenimax, a company that owns Xbox and to which Bethesda is affiliated. This is how we learned about the upcoming event Apocalypse Year Zero With DLC, Remastered version of Fallout 3 and TES IV: Oblivion.

Spirits will also continue Ghost Tel: Tokyo It’s from Tango Gameworks and, as the name suggests, luck smiles at Corva fans. Dishonored 3. An Indiana Jones adaptation was also mentioned, but it will be shot at Bethesda. Another licensed game. In addition, we also have Kestrel and Platinum projects, which we can only speculate about for now.

Even though we look at official documents, we need to approach this information with caution because From March 2021. Remastered Oblivion was originally planned for fiscal year 2022, with Doom Year Zero also slated for 2023. We’re not saying these projects no longer exist, it’s just that it’s not entirely certain they’ll be featured in the next Xbox rollout.

In another part of the documents, important information on the subject was revealed. The Elder Scrolls VI. It looks like Xbox has already decided the next chapter of this fantasy RPG is pretty clear. It will not be released on PlayStation 5. During final questions, Todd Howard was very vague about the platforms his new product will use. We are not surprised, but at least we have more or less officially confirmed this.

Phil Spencer’s shopping

Despite Xbox’s backyard studios having grown significantly in recent years, Phil Spencer doesn’t seem to be slowing down his acquisitions. After all, we have all these documents thanks to the planned acquisition of Activision. Besides Activision, Spencer had another company in his sights. In one of the emails, he mentions Warner Bros., for example. or just Nintendo.

But planning will definitely be put aside for now. Not only is Activision involved, but Microsoft as a whole is certainly not happy with such a large amount of information being made public via the FTC, and that’s certainly not the only thing hidden in all the newly obtained information. documents.

Sources: The Verge (1,2), Resetera