Captures of an alleged XDK reinforce possible rumors about the future Xbox

Last month a series of rumors appeared on the web with alleged details of the future Xbox that Microsoft would be preparing. One of them, perhaps the most controversial, referred to the possibility that the new console, codenamed 'Durango', required a permanent Internet connection to run its games. Well, in light of the new information published today by VGleaks these rumors may not have been misguided.

Everything comes from a series of screenshots from the alleged console development kitThe Durango XDK would contain, among other things, documentation where some of the possible details of its operation are reported. The structure of the kit, similar to that of the Xbox 360, and its content provide a certain veracity to what has been published and would confirm the need for a permanent Internet connection along with other rumors that have appeared over time.

According to what can be read in the documentation, in addition to permanent connection, Microsoft may require that all games be installed on the hard disk inside the console. The new Xbox would have a Blu-ray drive but this would only be used for installing the games, not being possible to run them directly from the optical support. According to the published text itself, the 'Durango' console will have a hard drive, whose capacity has not yet been determined, which would be enough to keep a large number of games installed.

Regarding the permanent connection, other new information (not present in the previous documentation) would confirm that each game will come with an activation code that cannot be reused or exchanged with others. The requirement would reach the point of being impossible to run any game without being connected Although from Redmond they allege other reasons, one cannot help but think that behind said movement there is an attempt for limiting the distribution of second-hand games.

Among the possible arguments used by Microsoft to justify these two measures, the main one could be its intention to reduce waiting times to play with the consoleThe new Xbox would have different power-on states, being able to remain in constant operation consuming a minimum of electricity so that the system was always ready to play.With the installation of the games we would avoid the loading times and with the permanent connection the update downloads when one tries to pick up the controller as soon as he turns on his Xbox.

As always, they are still rumors and, although this time they sound very credible, there is still no official information. It should also be noted that the documentation appears to be from 2012 and at this time Microsoft may have made some changes to what was initially planned. For now, it is best to be cautious and continue to wait for Redmond to release a pledge about its future gaming device, either next month or at E3 next June.

Via | Slashgear > VGleaks