Microsoft's new XBOX in the making?

BANGALORE, INDIA: Microsoft might be having an ace up its sleeve, going by an IGN report.

According to the entertainment website, the production for the new XBOX, purportedly the successor to the XBOX 360, has started in the Texas branch of Flextronics. This is despite Microsoft's recent announcement that it would not be revealing the successor to the XBOX 360 at E3 2012.

Incidentally, Flextronics manufactured the XBOX 360 and the original XBOX for Microsoft.

"Xbox 360 has found new ways to extend its lifecycle like introducing the world to controller-free experiences with Kinect and re-inventing the console with a new dashboard and new entertainment content partnerships. We are always thinking about what is next for our platform and how to continue to defy the lifecycle convention. Beyond that we do not comment on rumors or speculation," the IGN report quoted a statement by Microsoft.

The next gen XBOX, codenamed Durango, is expected to be six times more powerful than the XBOX 360. There are a variety of speculations as to whether it would have AMD's 7000 series Southern Islands GPU or the Radeon HD 6670, which offers support for DirectX 11, said another media report.