Microsoft just revealed a translucent green Xbox Series X for its 25th anniversary

Microsoft has announced the Xbox Series X25 Limited Edition, a translucent green console and controller collection that celebrates the 25th anniversary of the original 2001 system. The hardware was revealed during today's Xbox Games Showcase and will launch in November 2026.

I am glad to see them celebrating the milestone, but I am honestly surprised to see this hardware release because they haven't exactly been pushing their console business lately. Microsoft has spent the last few years aggressively prioritizing Game Pass subscriptions, cloud streaming, and multiplatform publishing on PlayStation and Switch over moving physical Xbox units. Releasing a premium, nostalgic console variant right now feels like a sudden pivot back to hardware enthusiasm.

There were a few different types of original Xbox green editions back in the day. You had the translucent Halo edition, the debug kits, and the various regional Crystal variants. This new Series X is obviously a kick back to those early 2000s designs.

Original ABXY colors and a green startup

The X25 collection includes a standard 1TB Xbox Series X and a matching wireless controller. Both use a translucent "OG Green" shell that exposes the internal shielding and components. According to Jason Ronald, Vice President of Next Generation at Xbox, the console's power-on sequence will have the main power button light up in green instead of the standard white.

The controller is also getting a retro treatment. It brings back the brightly colored ABXY buttons from the original Duke controller. The modern shoulder bumpers have been styled to honor the old black and white buttons that used to sit awkwardly above the right thumbstick on the 2001 gamepad.

A quarter century of heavy boxes

The original Xbox launched on November 15, 2001. It was a massive machine with a built-in hard drive and an Ethernet port. Those were highly unusual additions for a home console at the time, but they laid the groundwork for Xbox Live a year later. The 2001 console was essentially a repurposed Pentium III PC in a plastic shell. It weighed nearly nine pounds and required a breakaway cable so people wouldn't pull their heavy CRT televisions onto the floor when they tripped over the controller cord.

Translucent electronics were practically mandatory in the late nineties and early two-thousands. Nintendo had atomic purple Game Boys, Apple had Bondi blue iMacs, and Microsoft eventually settled on a distinct shade of radioactive green for its special edition hardware. The new X25 Series X mimics that exact shade of green plastic, right down to the slightly frosted finish.

Microsoft has not yet announced pricing or preorder dates for either the console or the standalone controller. Both are scheduled to hit select markets this November.