New Xbox Development Kit Certified by South Korean Agency

Yesterday, South Korea’s National Radio Research Agency certified a brand new and very mysterious Xbox Development Kit—naturally, the “Xbox News for Koreans” social media account took credit for this intriguing discovery: “this means that you can use the device in Korea. It is likely to be distributed to game developers in Korea soon.” The model’s serial code—2089—does not correspond to any of Microsoft’s current Xbox Series (X|S) development kits. The tipster shared a short history lesson: “Xbox Series X|S dev kit consoles were certified by the National Radio Research Agency on June 10-11, 2020. The release of the Xbox Series X|S console in Korea was on November 10, 2020.” By referencing the current generation’s five-month gap—between registration and release of finalized retail units—it is speculated that something new could be arriving around August time.

Industry experts reckon that the leaked devkit is not linked to a rumored “All-Digital” White Xbox Series X Refresh—the latter likely contains unchanged basic hardware designs. Windows Central posited that an Xbox handheld is another possibility—leaked product roadmaps (of 2022 vintage) revealed that Microsoft was considering a move into portable gaming segments. A month ago, Xbox leadership discussed the platform’s future—Sarah Bond stated: “there’s some exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we’re going to share this holiday, and we’re also invested in the next generation roadmap…and what we’re really focused on there, is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation.” Many media outlets believed that an Xbox Series “Pro” model was teased during the special Official Xbox Videocast.