An EBay user going by the handle of SuperDae has posted an Xbox “Durango” development kit on Ebay that has sold for an astonishing $20,000. It is unknown if this auction is the real deal, but pictures of a supposed development kit for the Xbox 360’s successor where posted online early last month and they featured a similar generic black computer case. Authenticity pending, this sale could be a major blow for Microsoft who have worked tirelessly to deny the existence of an Xbox 360 successor.
“SuperDae” also posted supposed development images from the next version of Microsoft’s Kinect online earlier in the month. Supposing that this auction and twitter account belong to the same person, we’re getting a sneak peek into the kits that developers have been said to be in position of since this past February. The “Kinect V2” screenshots showcase a much cleaner image, when compared to the grey and black infrared images we’re accustomed too from the motion sensing device. Rumors state that this second version of the Kinect will feature individual finger detection, a feature originally scheduled for the Kinect V1 before the removal of the on board processor.
The hardware inside of the Xbox Durango development kit is comparable to a modern, midrange, gaming PC. Sporting more than 8 GBs of memory, an Nvidia graphics chip and intel processor it is very likely this non-descript black box uses off the shelf parts, rather than a custom architecture like the Xbox 360 and previous generation consoles.
Surely the caper of the Durango development kit, and subsequent leaks, is only going to continue to grow. As more happens we will be sure to report on it!