With E3 right around the corner, Microsoft has made a handful of hardware-related announcements after an unintended leak of information. For starters, Larry “majornelson” Hryb of Microsoft tweeted the coming of the Xbox One Wireless Adapter for sale this fall. Also announced, via YouTube video (found below), was that the reduced price of the Xbox One reported to be temporary by many distributors would remain the permanent price, as well as a new available model equipped with a 1TB hard drive. A few minor tweaks to the standard Xbox One controller concluded the video.
Regarding the wireless adapter to come in the fall, Polygon reported being told by Microsoft that the adapter would only operate on PCs running the Windows 10 OS. Where many fans were excited to find out they could finally use an Xbox One controller with their PC without actually owning an Xbox One, a sizable portion of those fans are now likely disappointed.
As the video above explains, an Xbox One packing 1TB of hard drive space will become available for $399 and include a copy of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The existing 500GB models will remain at their current price of $349. Most interesting of this announcement, however, was that it was spoiled almost a week ago.
Many news outlets, such as Destructoid and Eurogamer, have been reporting the past few days that Amazon listed the 1TB Xboxes before their official announcement. Amazon even listed the date available as the same day Microsoft’s press conference was scheduled, where they likely intended to announce it originally. With this video, though, the announcement can now be considered “official”, even if early.
Sneaking into the second half of the video were some changes to the standard controllers. A port for 3.5mm audio plugs has been added to broaden the variety of usable headsets, and shoulder buttons have been given increased functionality to respond to pressure on all parts of the surface. There will also be a new special edition grey-camo variety available.
While all this sounds good for fans of the Xbox One, let’s hope they still have announcements left for E3.