iFixit, a company known for publishing teardown guides and repairability ratings as well as selling official spare parts and components for a variety of electronics brands, has added Microsoft's Xbox gaming console to its growing range of official spare parts. The repair promotion company announced in a blog post today that Xbox Series X and Series S spare parts are now available for purchase through iFixit, with all spare parts sold in the online store coming with a DIY repair guide.
As a typical representative of iFixit, in addition to the obvious profit motive, iFixit's goal is to promote the right to repair and DIY repairs to extend the service life of electronic products and reduce the amount of electronic waste that ends up being thrown into the trash.
The official iFixitXbox cooperation project will include disc versions and purely digital versions of the series of game consoles. The parts list is quite extensive, including large items such as motherboard components and built-in power supplies to more obscure parts such as rubber feet and Wi-Fi modules. Xbox controller spare parts can also be found on MicrosoftRepairHub, and the list of controller spare parts looks comprehensive. Oddly enough, iFixit will offer both Microsoft’s official X/S series replacement joysticks and Gulikit TMR electromagnetic joystick modules, which are anti-drift upgrades to the original joysticks.
This is not the first time iFixit has collaborated with Microsoft. Last year, iFixit began working with Microsoft to provide spare parts and guides for its Surface series products. iFixit has also partnered with other technology giants, such as Valve to develop SteamDeck and Samsung to develop Galaxy smartphones, but the latter cooperation was not smooth. iFixit severed ties with the Korean brand due to ideological differences over repair rights.
Oddly, iFixit and Microsoft don't always see eye to eye. iFixit has previously given Microsoft Surface devices and Xbox game consoles very poor repairability scores.