The worst kept secret of the new console generation has been the existence of a second Xbox console, the so-called Xbox Series S – which had become a ‘when’ rather than an ‘if’ in recent months. Well that ‘so-called’ can now be dropped, thanks to the inclusion of a single letter on new Xbox controller packaging.
A white version of the new Xbox Series controller has found its way, mysteriously, into the hands of a Twitter user, who has no apparent industry relations or history of such reveals. Zak S says he bought the controller on marketplace offerup.com for just $35, which, if true, points to the seller not knowing what they had.
The controller, from videos is certainly the new Xbox Series controller, in white as previously seen in other leaks, but the packaging clearly states that it compatible with ‘Series X|S’.
One black mark against the leak is that lack of an image of the Series S in the manual, alongside that image of the Series X. Though it’s possible that the S console is similarly shaped, though possibly less deep.
Presuming this is all true, that not only confirms the name of the second console, but also that it’s coming this year, rather than at a later date as we once suspected. That means Microsoft will undoubtedly be announcing it soon, and looking at promoting a dual console strategy this Christmas.
That’s a big surprise to us, we were convinced that Microsoft wouldn’t want the confusion of having two new consoles come to market at the same time, and potentially cannibalising sales of its top-end device by a lower segment SKU.
However, it does make sense from the point of view that Microsoft announced Series X very early and has released all the details about it, except price, already. It fits in well with its softer approach to hardware generations, and with Series X likely to sell out anyway at launch, a digital only Series S, with a more easily produced and higher yielding GPU might be most welcome at launch.
