AI-powered Xbox Series S console shelved by Microsoft

Last week Microsoft executives took to the Xbox podcast to explain a new cross-platform publishing strategy alongside the tease of new gaming hardware. A week later reports are surfacing and clarifying the details of Microsoft’s proposed console releases for 2024.

According to reputable YouTube RedGamingTech, Microsoft had planned to release an artificially intelligent powered Xbox Series S console as part of a mid-generation refresh to the current generation Xbox Series lineup.

RedGamingTech details that a proposed AI-led Xbox Series S would have been built with an RDNA 3-based GPU, expanded RAM support and a machine learning platform for speed and graphical upscaling akin to the current Xbox Series X level of performance.

However, the new Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) that would have been highlighted in the new console ran into some technical difficulties when Microsoft attempted to scale the entire project.

Rather than delay its internal roadmaps and delivery projections, Microsoft is opting to go with its less ambitious alternative for a 2024 release, codename Ellewood.

Microsoft’s Ellewood project has been circling the gaming sector for a few months now following a treasure trove of leaked Xbox decks that surfaced during the appeal phase of a Federal Trade Commission injunction on the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Based on the Ellewood specific slide that was leaked, details of the hardware include expanded storage capacity of up to 1TB, upgraded Wi-Fi support, a new southbridge for modernized I/O, a new Bluetooth 5.2 radio, and an upgraded controller experience all for $299.99 USD.

While Ellewood may feel like a throttling of Xbox ambitions for console gaming in 2024, Microsoft hasn’t taken its foot of the AI gas, and gamers should expect the next console coming from the company’s gaming division to be AI centric.

Xbox executives hinted at groundbreaking technological advancements in console gaming were upcoming that could include AI-powered resolution scaling, asset rendering, and fidelity improvements, all of which could be part of a neural processing unit (NPU) initiative present in the next piece of hardware from the Xbox team.