Microsoft has opened preorders for the Xbox 25th Anniversary Collection, a run of officially licensed peripherals dressed in translucent “OG Green” to mark 25 years since the original Xbox launched on November 15, 2001. None of the products come from Microsoft itself. Instead, the lineup pulls together three Razer desktop peripherals, two phone controllers, an 8BitDo charging dock and a carry bag for the Asus-made ROG Xbox Ally handhelds, all built by third-party partners under licence.
Most of the collection ships in late October, with the Razer items landing first on October 20. The timing and composition say a lot about where Xbox as a brand is heading: fewer console-exclusive trinkets, more gear built for PC and mobile, where Microsoft has been steadily pushing Xbox Mode and its console-style interface over the past year.
Razer’s translucent green gear headlines the collection
Razer supplies the three most expensive items in the Xbox 25th Anniversary Collection, and each one is a green-tinted version of an existing product rather than something built from scratch. The Basilisk V3 Pro 35K mouse costs $179.99, the BlackWidow V4 75% keyboard is $209.99, and the Hammerhead V3 X HyperSpeed earbuds for Xbox come in at $119.99. All three carry a $20 premium over their standard-colour counterparts, with the translucent shell as the only real difference.
That’s not necessarily a bad trade for anyone who already wanted the hardware. The Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K keeps its Focus Pro 35K Optical Sensor Gen-2 and up to 140 hours of wireless battery life, while the BlackWidow retains its hot-swappable Orange Tactile Switches Gen-3. Nothing internal has changed to justify the anniversary status beyond the look, which leans heavily on the original console’s design language, including the four-colour face-button palette that also appears on the matching anniversary console.
| Product | Type | Price | Ships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K | Wireless mouse | $179.99 | October 20 |
| Razer BlackWidow V4 75% | Mechanical keyboard | $209.99 | October 20 |
| Razer Hammerhead V3 X HyperSpeed | Wireless earbuds | $119.99 | October 20 |
| Backbone Pro (blind box) | Phone controller | $159.99 | Late October |
| GameSir X5 Lite | Phone controller | $44.99 | Late October |
| 8BitDo Ultimate Charging Dock | Controller dock | $39.99 | Late October |
Phone controllers and a matching console round things out
The BlackWidow keyboard includes a dedicated Xbox key that opens Windows Game Bar, mirroring the shortcut Asus mapped to the physical Xbox button on the ROG Xbox Ally. That’s a small detail, but it underlines how tightly this collection is tied to Windows 11 rather than to a physical Xbox console. Backbone’s Pro controller, priced at $159.99, ships in a blind-box format that hides which of three heritage colourways buyers actually receive, while GameSir’s X5 Lite phone controller sits at the affordable end for $44.99. The 8BitDo Ultimate Charging Dock, at $39.99, gives both clip-on controllers somewhere to sit when they’re not attached to a phone.
The one item Microsoft builds itself is the Xbox Series X25 Limited Edition, announced back on June 7 at the Xbox Games Showcase and due in November alongside a separately sold Wireless Controller X25. It reuses standard Series X internals with 1TB of storage inside the same translucent green shell as the peripherals. Pricing hasn’t been officially confirmed, though a figure cited by TechPowerUp via Dealabs puts it near $899, roughly $100 above a standard 1TB Series X.
What the collection says about Xbox’s direction
None of this is really about the console anymore. Out of eight products in the Xbox 25th Anniversary Collection, only one ships as a traditional living-room box. Everything else is aimed at desks, laptops and phones, which lines up with moves Microsoft has already made this year: rolling Xbox Mode out to Windows 11 PCs in April, extending the ROG Xbox Ally’s console-style interface to desktops and laptops, and reportedly building its next console generation around a custom AMD chip rather than a from-scratch architecture.
For buyers, the appeal of the anniversary run is mostly cosmetic rather than functional. Anyone chasing better hardware for less money is better served by the standard-colour Basilisk, BlackWidow or Hammerhead models, since the internals are identical. The green shells matter more as a nostalgia play for players who remember the original 2001 launch, or who simply want their desk to match the limited-edition console when it arrives in November. Given the premium attached to each Razer product, the collection is clearly aimed at collectors and long-time fans rather than anyone shopping purely on specifications.
