Xbox 720 dev kits ‘available by December’

The first mass-issue of Xbox 720 development kits will commence in a matter of weeks, a new report claims.

An alleged inside source, speaking to Edge, said the next generation dev kits run custom hardware and will reach studios before Christmas.

“Ubisoft Montreal is already hard at work on ‘target boxes’ based on the intended specifications of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 successor,” the publication claimed.

“Ubisoft’s teams are said to be working on PCs containing off-the-shelf components provided by Microsoft,” it added.

Edge claims that several other major developers, “including certain EA studios”, are also in possession of rudimentary Xbox 720 development kits.

In May, Develop reported that an EA studio had by then been in possession of a next generation Xbox for around a month. The company initially declined to comment, but later accused Develop of publishing “fabrications”.

Develop was told last month that AMD is providing the GPU Microsoft’s next-generation console. That claim couldn’t be verified, but Edge’s source backs up the suggestion.

However, there is disagreement on the final release date for Microsoft’s next-gen system. Edge claims the console will hit retail in late 2012 – Develop’s sources point to late 2013.