Microsoft are gearing up to make some big Xbox hardware announcements at E3 this June, if new reports are to be believed.
Rumours have been flying around for ages now regarding upgraded hardware for both the PS4 and Xbox One. While we seem to have a whole lot of leaked info on the PS4.5 (codenamed NEO), the “Xbox 1.5” is much more mysterious by comparison.
Still, we shouldn’t have to wait much longer before the mystery is over. At least, that’s according to trusted Microsoft source Paul Thurrot, who reported that we’d be seeing new Xbox hardware at E3, along with a shiny new controller.
Brad Sams (writing on Thurrot’s blog) goes on to describe the new controller, which is apparently similar to the current design but will most likely be a different colour.
As for the hardware, Sams says this could be a new version of the Xbox One Elite console or something totally new – but he seems unsure at the moment.
Meanwhile, Eurogamer picked up on an apparent Chinese production leak which appeared to reveal details of an “Xbox One second generation” machine which entered production back in February. Check that out below.
This could suggest that production is well under way, and that we might even be seeing the new Xbox sooner rather than later.
An Xbox One Slim would certainly support recent comments from Xbox boss Phil Spencer, who has explicitly told us not to expect an Xbox 1.5.
Spencer says he’d prefer to move forward in “big numbers”, so perhaps any updated Xbox One model would focus on a new design rather than enhanced capabilities.
For now, the mystery continues.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.