Whoops! Microsoft Spills Tons Of XBox Secrets

It’s well known by now that the team at XBox and its parent company Microsoft are really bad at keeping secrets, but what happened last night takes an all-new kind of cake. As a standard procedure for the Federal Trade Commission v. Microsoft case (the one that tried and failed to stop their acquisition of Activision), the company uploaded dozens of private internal documents to the FTC server. Somebody figured out how to pluck them from there; apparently it wasn’t too secure.

While most of the documents were properly redacted with lots of black bars blocking out the sensitive stuff, one PDF had no block-outs whatsoever, and it revealed just about every long-range plan Microsoft has for XBox. The files have been removed now, but of course it’s too late. Everybody knows.

Since some of these plans are so far out and early, some of them may not actually happen in the way the documents suggest (and in a couple of cases, we really hope they don’t). Here’s what they’re thinking about:

• Refreshing the XBox Series X in the fall of 2024 with a new design, stronger wi-fi and Bluetooth capabilities, double the storage, a USB-C port on the front and….no disc drive. People will not be happy about that last one. In fact they already aren’t. Price would be the same as the current model, suggesting a discount for the previous model
• Releasing an upgraded Series S around the same time, with the only difference being twice the storage
• An upgraded controller with an accelerometer inside (this senses the angle at which you hold it; Playstation controllers have had this feature for quite a while)
• Plans for releasing the next XBox in 2028 with “cloud-hybrid games” as a feature
• Several unannounced games, including Dishonored 3, remasters of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion and Fallout 3, a sequel to Ghostwire: Tokyo and a new Doom game, among others

The FTC claims they’re not to blame and this is entirely Microsoft’s flub. There has been no public statement from XBox regarding this. Anyway, these are the competent hands that now hold the fate of Call of Duty.