Microsoft unveils translucent green Xbox Series X for 25th anniversary

Microsoft is leaning on nostalgia, not a new hardware cycle, with a translucent green Xbox Series X25 Limited Edition that reaches back to the original Xbox’s OG Green identity. The 1 TB console and matching controller were unveiled during Xbox Games Showcase 2026, with the bundle due in select markets in November and pricing still to come. The timing is pointed: the original Xbox launched in North America on November 15, 2001, putting 2026 squarely in the 25th-anniversary year.

“For the first time, we’re bringing a translucent design to Xbox Series X, drawing inspiration from the original Xbox and OG Green so many players remember,” Microsoft said in its Xbox Wire post. That design callback is the whole story. The new console, called the Xbox Series X25 Limited Edition, keeps the modern Series X form but gives it a translucent green shell, while the Xbox logo lights up green when the machine is powered on, a clear nod to the brand’s earliest startup image.

The companion Xbox Wireless Controller X25 Special Edition carries the same translucent OG Green styling. Microsoft said it also brings back the original ABXY colors, adds bumper colors that reference the black and white buttons on the original Duke controller, and uses a fully transparent back case and battery door that expose the classic Xbox logo. The controller will be sold separately as well as in the November bundle, giving Microsoft two collectible entry points instead of one.

The release is less about a spec bump than about keeping Xbox emotionally relevant in a mature hardware market. Sony and Nintendo have long used anniversary editions, retro colorways and legacy callbacks to remind players that their brands are bigger than the latest machine on the shelf. Microsoft is making the same bet here: a limited-edition console can energize loyal fans, generate social attention and turn brand memory into demand without promising a generational leap in performance.

That makes the X25 both a collector’s item and a branding exercise. Microsoft said more anniversary announcements are still to come, which suggests the company is using the 25th year of Xbox to stretch beyond a single hardware reveal and turn nostalgia into a broader campaign.