Microsoft intends on releasing refreshed versions of its Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X consoles in 2024 along with a redesigned controller, leaked court documents have revealed.

The documents came from Microsoft’s lengthy fight against the FTC to get its purchase of Activision approved and were published last night, seemingly by accident. In the documents are detailed slides that reveal the existence of new Xbox Series S and X consoles, codenamed Ellewood and Brooklin respectively, along with details on when the new consoles are going to be announced to the world.

Since the current-gen consoles launched there has been a lot of discussion over whether Sony and Microsoft would release mid-gen upgrades or refreshes like they did with the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X last generation. These leaked documents make it undeniably clear that Microsoft does intend on a mid-gen spruce-up of its consoles, but interestingly the new iterations are not big upgrades in terms of power. In fact, both new consoles are no more powerful than the current Series S/X models.

Both machines will also retail at the same price as their predecessors, indicating that they’ll replace the older versions entirely rather than being separate products like the Xbox One X was. This is perhaps an indication that launching a mid-gen “Pro” console didn’t do much for Microsoft’s financials. With that said, it has always been hard to find any solid sales data on the Xbox One X and the PlayStation 4, making it tough to gauge their success or lack of.

‘Brooklin’ and ‘Ellewood’ details

Let’s start with the headliner: Brooklin, the new version of the Series X, sports the tagline, “The most powerful Xbox ever, now adorably all digital.” It boosts a new cylindrical look and as the tagline suggest lacks an optical drive. In the same slide, Microsoft continues to push the digital future by stating that the Brooklin is, “a beautiful redesign that elevates the all-digital experience of the Xbox ecosystem.”

Indeed, neither of the new machines has a capacity for physical media. If they do indeed replace the existing models, Microsoft would become the first of the big three console giants to shift to a digital-only model. PlayStation does have a digital-only PlayStation, but still makes and sells a console with a disc-drive as well.

Boasting 2TB of storage, twice that of the Series X, the other under-the-hood upgrades are heavily focused on making the console less power-hungry. According to the slide, the new console uses 15% less power, and the new power-saving standby is just 20% of the current version. The Xbox Series X currently uses around 13w in standby, so this new version could use as little as 2.6w in standby.

15% less power is a pretty reasonable decrease. In 2022 Digital Foundry published an article taking a look at how much consoles cost to run, with the Xbox Series X using 170-190w to play something like Cyberpunk 2027. In theory, then, Brooklin could drop that to 145-172w roughly.

The Brooklin also has Wi-Fi 6E and BT 5.2 Radio for better, faster connections.

November 2024 is the intended release date, with the announcement scheduled to take place in June/July of 2024. These documents are from 2022, though, so the timings may have changed.

Now for Ellewood. It’s a less drastic model, keeping the same look as the current Xbox Series S but pairing it with a bigger 1TB drive. There are no claims of reducing the power usage aside from the same improved standby mode, but the Series S is already pretty frugal. The Ellewood also gets the better Wi-fi and Bluetooth, but everything else is the same as the existing model.

The Ellewood will launch in September, 2024.

The new ‘Sebile’ controller

Ahead of the new consoles Microsoft also plans on revealing and launching a controller codenamed Sebile which is going to replace the existing Xbox controllers. It’ll come packaged with both new consoles and seems to have a raft of upgrades designed to compete with the PlayStation’s featured-packed Dualsense.

Firstly, the new controller is heavily pushing Xbox’s Cloud plans, it seems. It features Xbox Wireless 2, Bluetooth 5.1 and direct Cloud-to-Cloud communication, although what that means is up in the air. Also mentioned is new mobile app features and “seamless” pair and switch.

Haptic feedback is also listed, something which Sony’s Dualsense uses heavily, along with an accelerometer which will allow the new controller to use motion control. Whether the haptics will attempt to mimic the Dualsense or be a little more simple is something we don’t yet know. For example, nothing like adaptive triggers have been mentioned.

A new rechargable, swappable battery is included too, and an emphasis on being able to disassemble and repair the controller, which is fantastic news. Finally, there’s a little quality of life upgrade: just lift the controller to wake it up. Presumably this will also wake up your console, which is pretty cool until you accidentally move the controller and have to turn everything off again.

All in all, it seems like a hefty upgrade for the Xbox controller’s, especially when paired with already excellent ergonomics. No pricing has been mentioned, though, so hopefully Sebile won’t cost anything more.

According to the leaked slides, Sebile will be announced sometime around the end of May/beginning of June.

Biggest leak since Nvidia?

Microsoft aren’t going to be very happy bunnies right now. This is arguably the biggest leak we’ve seen since the infamous Nvidia leak which basically revealed the majority of games coming out for several years. I wouldn’t be too surprised if Microsoft just decides to make the announcements earlier now since the information is already out there.

Truthfully, though, the new console iterations aren’t going to cause many waves. Because there’s no increase to graphical or processing power, Microsoft don’t have any massive consumer selling points to market. Things like less power usage and better Wi-fi are great but aren’t things that are going to sell consoles. For anybody in the market for a new console, though, it’s good that they will get a bit more for their money.

Arguably, however, would you rather have just had a price-drop?

I honestly think the new controller is real star of the show. Its getting some major upgrades, something which a lot of people have been calling for since Sony decided to wedge so much into their Dualsense.

And finally, it’s sad to see physical media going. It’s inevitable at this point, but I’m still a fan of owning discs since trading-in and selling second-hand are important to me. Plus, my PlayStation 5 serves as my 4K Blu-ray player because 4K discs look and sound so much better than their streamed counterparts.