Digital-only Xbox Series X reportedly launching “June or July” this year

Microsoft is reportedly preparing to launch a new white, digital-only version of its top-end Xbox Series X console in “June or July” this year.

An “adorably all-digital” Xbox Series X refresh, planned for a 2024 release, first surfaced as part of a mammoth leak of official Microsoft documentation during last year’s court battle with the FTC. However, Xbox boss Phil Spencer later insisted “so much has changed” since the plans detailed in the leak had been drawn up, leaving the all-digital console’s future uncertain.

But now, noted leaker eXtas1s (writing for Exputer) has claimed that not only are Microsoft’s all-digital Xbox Series X plans still alive, the console is set to release “sometime between the upcoming months of June and July” – although “chances for a slight delay” remain.

According to eXtas1s, as well as jettisoning the optical disc drive of the original Xbox Series X, this new digital-only version will feature an improved heatsink and upgraded Nexus card. It’s also claimed the revision will be white, in an inversion of the current Series X colour scheme, but it sounds like all other aspects of the console will remain the same.

Last year’s leak pointed to an all-digital Xbox Series X (codenamed Brooklin) with an entirely new cylindrical design, a front-facing USB-C slot, improved wi-fi, a refreshed controller, and decreased power draw – but eXtas1s’ report mentions none of those, suggesting this is a far less wide-ranging revision.

That earlier design prompted fears Microsoft could be gearing up to ditch physical media altogether – a concern only compounded when it was reported the company’s 1,900 layoffs in January had hit its games retail teams particularly hard. Addressing those concerns, Phil Spencer recently insisted Microsoft remained “supportive of physical media”, but said that Xbox’s job was to “deliver on the things that a majority of the customers want. And right now, a majority of our customers are buying games digitally.”

Of course, today’s report of a new digital-only Xbox Series X release this summer doesn’t mean much until Microsoft makes any such console official. Interestingly though, the company did recently confirm it would have more Xbox hardware news to share this year – albeit with those reveals seemingly being scheduled for this “holiday” season, a timeframe which obviously doesn’t align with a possible June-July console refresh release window.

That announcement arrived alongside confirmation Microsoft would, as heavily rumoured, be releasing four previously Xbox-exclusive first-party games – now known to be Sea of Thieves, Pentiment, Grounded, and Hi-Fi Rush – across PlayStation 5 and Switch this year. It also teased that work on its next Xbox was already underway – a move presumably intended to assuage fan fears it might be considering abandoning the console market following its multiplatform news – insisting that it would deliver “the largest technical leap…ever seen in a hardware generation.”