Xbox Series S has seemingly been confirmed by leaked packaging

Microsoft’s second, cheaper next-gen games console, Xbox Series S, has seemingly been confirmed by leaked controller packaging.

Images of a white next-gen Xbox controller – which itself has not been officially announced – appeared on social media sites on Sunday, and The Verge claims to have verified that they show an authentic item purchased via a reseller site.

Most significantly, the side of the packaging notes that the controller works with both Xbox Series X and “Xbox Series S” consoles.

As reported by multiple media outlets including VGC, the console codenamed Lockhart – or Series S, as it looks set to be called – is a less powerful version of Series X that will likely target cost-conscious consumers.

UPDATE: Another social media user claims to have acquired an Xbox Series X / S controller:

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES: Lockhart development kits are understood to have been with studios for several months, with next-gen Xbox developers expected to support both Series X and Lockhart in a setup similar to the existing Xbox One X and Xbox One S consoles, and PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro.

The yet-to-be-announced second next-gen console SKU is designed to appeal to cost-conscious players and will reportedly target 4 teraflops of computing power (compared to the 12 of Series X).

Although the system is reportedly less powerful than Series X, it’s claimed Series S will still offer aspects of the next-gen experience currently unavailable to past-gen consoles, possibly in the form of faster SSD loading speeds and limited ray-tracing.

It was previously claimed that Lockhart would ship with a faster CPU, no disk drive and target 1440p gaming.

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Last month Microsoft confirmed it would halt production of its Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition consoles, seemingly in preparation for the arrival of Xbox Series S.

Xbox One X, originally billed as “the world’s most powerful console”, was launched in November 2017, while the disc-less All Digital Edition was launched only last year.

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has suggested that Xbox will publish its latest next-gen console news this month.

Media reports had previously indicated that Xbox would use an August event as the platform to announce Lockhart.