Microsoft working on mini-Xbox to compete with Apple TV?

Microsoft-watcher and plan-leaker MS Nerd has been shooting his mouth off about Microsoft's Xbox plans over on Reddit, claiming that we'll see an Xbox Lite launch date in late 2013, with a true new Xbox coming later.

The Xbox Lite will be an ARM-based platform that should receive a price tag similar to that of the Apple TV, so around about £100 in the UK and $100 US.

In fact, it sounds a lot like the Xbox Loop, a product code-name previously outed by the same guy in November and described as smaller, cheaper and Kinect-focused product.

After that will come the 'Xbox Next', says MS Nerd, which we prefer to think of as the Xbox 720 (although it's very unlikely that we'll know the new Xbox by that name when it launches).

Diet Xbox

"At some point after [the Xbox Lite], we'll see a Xbox Next, a true successor to the 360," writes MS Nerd.

"Details about it are very hazy, except that, like the 360, it will do games for core-audiences and the same media apps as the other device, also with Kinect."

Given that Microsoft has already said it won't be launching new Xbox hardware "at E3 or anytime soon", we're not exactly holding our breath for a new Xbox.

MS Nerd also posits that we'll see a major Kinect refresh land in 2015.

Condiments

Now, pass the salt – we're going to need a bit to go with these suppositions. First of all, MS Nerd is just some guy who doesn't work for Microsoft gleaning bits and pieces of information from anonymous and unverified sources then sharing them on an internet message board.

It's entirely likely that at least some of this is true; but given that MS Nerd repeatedly talks about his leaks as "a social experiment" and comments on web journalists regurgitating unverified rumour as fact, we wouldn't be surprised to hear he's slipped a couple of untruths in deliberately just to prove a point.

But the MS Nerd gravy train is coming to an end, as he or she writes that they are exiting 'the game' in a month's time – so we won't be able to berate or belove him for it when the Xbox Loop and new Xbox do or do not arrive.

http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/xbox-lite-coming-2013-with...