Flextronics Reportedly Begins Test Production of Xbox Next

From X-bit Labs: The more pieces of information, analytics, expectations or rumours emerge about the Xbox 360's successor, the more mysterious Microsoft Corp.'s future Xbox game system becomes. Even its code-name is not known exactly: Loop or Durango?

Microsoft has ruled out possibility of showing off its next-generation Xbox video game console at the E3 trade-show this year. Nonetheless, it does not mean that Microsoft is preparing itself for an inevitable release of a new Xbox. Earlier this year rumours transpired that Microsoft had begun to ship Xbox Next hardware development kits to game developers. Now, it is reported that Flextronics had started what is believed to be test production of the new Xbox console.

According to a source of IGN web-site, "assembly of the next-generation Xbox hardware" started recently at the Austin, Texas-based facility of Flextronics. The contract manufacturer reportedly established an independent "testing group" that was "solely dedicated to comprehensive marketing, software, and hardware tests of the next Xbox" and afterwards Flextronics "started building the hardware".

While it is not exactly known, what Flextronics does in its facility in Austin, Texas [jobs ads point to actual manufacturing, but this is not a proof of anything], the claim that the company created a "test group" doing "marketing" things for Microsoft does not exactly sound credible. On the other hand, the "test group" could be a team looking out for the most efficient ways to produce Microsoft's Xbox Next. The latter alleged fact could mean that Microsoft has begun to make hardware development kits for a wide range of game designers.

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