Two New, Very Different Xbox Controllers Have Leaked Online

"Photos of a new, unannounced Xbox controller leaked after Brazil's Anatel regulator accidentally shared images of the yet-to-be-revealed gamepad online. And then, a few hours later, the same regulator leaked images of a different, officially not announced Xbox controller. Whoops."

"Technoblog obtained and posted leaked images of a cloud controller designed specifically to work with Xbox game streaming. The controller is smaller than a normal Xbox gamepad, but includes all the buttons and sticks you'd expect, just arranged in a smaller, cheaper form factor. This is the kind of controller that Xbox expects people to toss in a bag and bring with them on a trip or leave on a table in a room with a TV that can stream games."

"The idea being that a direct wif-fi connection has less latency than a connection via Bluetooth that has to go through a few more steps to reach the game running on a server somewhere off-site. In February, The Verge reported that Xbox was developing a streaming controller that would directly connect to games through a wifi connection, similar to how Google Stadia controllers worked with the now-defunct game streaming service."

"The Elite 3 gamepad features an interchangeable d-pad, back paddles, and two extra buttons with yet unknown functions. It also features two new scroll wheels at the bottom of the controller that could be used to tweak controller settings, or perhaps will be a new input method. The Elite 3 will also support cloud streaming via a direct wifi connection, similar to what that other leaked Xbox controller can do."

Leaked images show two unannounced Xbox controllers. One is a smaller “cloud controller” designed for Xbox game streaming, keeping expected buttons and sticks while using a more compact, cheaper form factor. It is intended to connect directly to streamed games over Wi‑Fi, aiming to reduce latency compared with Bluetooth connections that add extra steps. A second set of leaked images appears to show an Xbox Elite 3 controller. It includes an interchangeable d-pad, back paddles, two additional buttons, and two new bottom scroll wheels that may adjust settings or provide a new input method. The Elite 3 is also expected to support cloud streaming via direct Wi‑Fi.

Read at Kotaku