Xbox Elite Series 3 controller spotted in the wild ahead of its official reveal
And it’s weird how it happened
👀 Microsoft’s rumored Xbox Elite Series 3 controller has been leaked on Reddit
🎮 A post on r/Controllers showed off the unit that the original poster had reportedly purchased on OfferUp
🤔 The controller appears to be a prototype and has some interesting new features
☁️ These include two scroll wheels and a ‘Pair’ button that reportedly switches between a local Xbox console and the Cloud Gaming servers
Microsoft has been heavily rumored to be working on a new Xbox Elite controller, and it’s now been spotted in the wild in the weirdest of circumstances ahead of an official reveal.
A seemingly innocuous post on the r/Controllers subreddit asked if the community could identify a controller, with images supplied.
Users over on Reddit believe it to be the as-yet-unannounced Xbox Elite Series 3, with the original poster getting a prototype of the controller that only blinks a red light, meaning it’s tied to a dev console of some form.
It closely matches the Xbox Elite Series 3 Controller pictures that were leaked by the Brazilian regulator earlier this year.
As The Verge’s Tom Warren noted, the original poster said they purchased the controller on the online marketplace OfferUp, which is strange in itself as this prototype controller shouldn’t be anywhere, let alone sold on a marketplace.
However, the gallery of images provided on the original Reddit post has now disappeared – presumably as a result of a cease-and-desist from Microsoft, although that is speculation.
It could be the case that the images are faked, and it’s worth taking things with a pinch of salt. That being said, there is a notice on the rear of the controller’s battery compartment stating it to be a prototype.
At a glance, things don’t seem to have changed that much between the Elite Series 3 and its predecessor, apart from different grips and two-stage trigger locks.
That being said, analysis from The Verge shows some more interesting changes. The controller may have two scroll wheels along the bottom edge, a wireless mode for connecting directly to the Xbox Cloud Gaming servers, and a ‘Pair’ button that switches between a local Xbox console and the Cloud Gaming servers.
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Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.