Microsoft insists that every Xbox One can still be a dev kit

Plans remains in place for every Xbox One unit to have the facility of being transformed into a development station.

Microsoft said way back in July that any Microsoft-authorized Xbox One unit can be converted into a debug console – the advantage to developers of course being the ability to play pre-release game code with no expensive specialized hardware required.

The functionality has yet to materialise, however, and Digital Spy yesterday reported that such plans had in fact been scrapped entirely.

"We were in the early stages of Xbox One looking at the idea of a retail kit that could be turned into a development kit, and vice versa," Xbox advanced technology group’s Martin Fuller is reported as confirming.

"In the end, although that was a very admirable goal, it hasn’t happened unfortunately. I can’t tell you the specifics of exactly why not. As far as I’m aware there are no plans. I’m not aware of the reason why we didn’t manage to do that."

However, these claims were swiftly denied by the platform holder, with a spokesperson stating: "The comments today were inaccurate. We remain committed to ensuring the best possible solutions for developers and hobbyists to create games for Xbox One. We will share more details at a later date."

In a separate interview on Gamasutra ID@Xbox director Chris Charla added: "We have said that anyone will be able to use retail Xbox Ones to develop games. We’re not there yet, so we need to send custom dev kits."