Microsoft doesn’t want to acknowledge it, but we all know a new Xbox is coming soon. The only thing we know for certain is that its codename is Durango. Everything else at this point is purely conjecture. We might know a bit more soon if an eBay listing that popped up over the weekend is legitimate.
In what might be a first for the industry, a supposed Xbox Durango development kit has been sold on eBay for $20,000. Until now, the console has only been the subject of hushed rumors on message boards across the Internet. If the dev kit is real, we might be getting out first look at what Durango entails if the buyer is feeling generous.
Unfortunately, the eBay listing itself doesn’t really say much. The only thing that can be gathered is that the dev kit in the picture is pretty standard. The specs of the machine will also not entirely match that of the finished console as dev kits require more power than the console itself will use. If real, it will provide a few clues as to what the finished console will be like.
We must also take into consideration that this could all be a scam. The seller is brand new without anything under his belt. Selling a next-gen Xbox dev kit on eBay would also violate a host of Microsoft policies it has towards next-gen development. Many people were actually wondering when Microsoft was going to shut the auction down, but that never happened.
One interesting theory is that Microsoft bought the dev kit to keep everything quiet. A cancellation of the auction by Microsoft would only confirm the legitimacy. By buying it, they can preserve the secrecy for at least a while longer.
If everything works out, however, expect to see something on it in the near future. The winning bidder has won a number of computer supply parts in the past. Going off of past bidding history, he or she might be a programmer or hardware enthusiast. If they’re kind enough to the world, they might just share the first details on Durango with all of us.
[h/t: Kotaku]