According to Windows Central’s Jez Corden, who was recently speaking on the Xbox Two Podcast ,Microsoftis currently working with three different prototypes for new controllers that are expected to come out sometime in the future. He said that he is still looking into the situation and doesn’t have a ton of info yet, but to him, it appears that Xbox is set to come out with three controllers of varying premium features.
What are the Three New Xbox Controllers?
According to Corden, the three new Xbox controllers currently being worked on are:
Xboxis pretty familiar with putting out new controllers in the form of new color variants or special editions, but hearing they have three separate controllers they are working on is quite the surprise. Unfortunately, Corden says he doesn’t quite know yet what the big features will be on the new controllers, but luckily, we have plenty of rumors and documents fromMicrosoftthemselves that might lead us to knowing what is coming.
Starting with Project Sebile, Corden says this is meant to be a mid-range upgrade controller. Essentially, you should expect something that has more features than the standard controller, but not as much as the Elite Series 3. Where that top-of-the-line controller will probably cost multiple hundreds of dollars to buy, Sebile will likely be somewhere between that and a basic controller.
If you remember back to the FTC court case against Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard, Microsoft actually leaked a bunch of documents to the public. One of those included our first look at Sebile below.
Granted, a lot could have changed since the image above, but we would expect both Sebile and the Elite 3 to have the new haptic feedback, accelerometer, quieter buttons, rechargeable battery, and lift to wake.
Corden wrote on Windows Centralat the end of last year that the controller will also have the ability to directly connect to your Wi-Fi to help with latency issues during cloud gaming. That is a feature that we would imagine Microsoft wants to include in all three of these new controllers, though that is speculation.
One of the biggest complaints with the previous two Elite Series controllers was their durability. While there aren’t any leaks talking about it yet, we also expect Microsoft to attempt to focus on making sure the shoulder buttons in particular are better quality and the thumbsticks don’t drift.
When Will the New Xbox Controllers Come Out?
Unfortunately, we don’t have any real idea when the three new Xbox controllers will be released. Speaking specifically about the Elite Series 3, Corden says he doesn’t think that will come this year. He did speculate about it coming next year alongside what is expected to be the release year of the next-generation Xbox, which could happen, but that’s also when Sebile is expected to release.
It’s one thing for Microsoft to be working on so many prototypes at once, but we would be really surprised to have all of these controllers released at the same time. From a business standpoint, they might want to try and space them out more to get people to double-dip when the new releases come out.
From a pricing standpoint, everything in the gaming industry (and the world) is in flux at the moment. We can’t put a solid number on anything right now, but it’s safe to say that things are not getting cheaper, so don’t expect these controllers to cost anything like what you see in stores now.
