Xbox Series X Will Reportedly Drop This Xbox One Feature

Microsoft caught a lot of heat for its Xbox One reveal, which mainly focused on TV and entertainment. While the company did eventually shift its attention back to gamers later on, all Xbox One models still came with two HDMI ports — one to plug in your cable box, and one to connect to your TV.

It seems likely now that second HDMI port won't make it to the Xbox Series X.

A new report from Thurrott claims to have the inside scoop on the ports Microsoft's new console will include. There will be two USB-A ports on the back, along with ports for ethernet, optical audio, and power. On the front, you'll find another USB-A port. None of these are at all surprising; they're what you'd expect to find on a game console in the year 2020.

What is surprising, though, is that Microsoft has apparently decided to keep just one of its HDMI ports. That port will, of course, be the one used to output video to your television. But the removal of the second might come as a shock, considering every single Xbox One — even 2017's Xbox One X — included that port for video input.

We can see this news being received in one of two ways. For those who never really bought into the "all-in-one" approach of the Xbox One, the lack of that second HDMI port probably isn't a big deal. It was never used, and its absence won't really be noticed.

For those who enjoyed the convenience of that second port, however, this could be incredibly disappointing. A big selling point of the Xbox Series X was that players could jump into the next generation without really losing anything. Their Xbox One games and accessories would all still work; they'd just be attached to more powerful hardware. Now the narrative changes. Some players will have to make a sacrifice if they want to buy Microsoft's latest and greatest console. It's a small one, but it's still a sacrifice where, previously, there were none.

The Series X hardware could change between now and when the system officially launches, so we'll have to wait and see if that second HDMI port is truly gone. Don't be surprised, however, if you hear some chatter online about this. It could end up bothering more people than you think.