Microsoft had clearly announced that they would not be revealing the successor to the XBOX 360 at E3 2012. Yet, IGN has reported that the production for the new XBOX has already begun in Austin, Texas branch of Flextronics. This is the same company that has manufactured the XBOX 360 and the original XBOX for Microsoft.
If these rumours are to be believed, then it is possible that Microsoft is looking at massive availability when the console is finally revealed and launched. It could also be that these initial units are for game development companies. Since development of new hardware is an expensive affair, it is quite likely that Microsoft has entered early production to fight the rising costs. All these are speculations and not confirmed facts.
Microsoft has issued the following statement to IGN on the matter of the next gen XBOX, “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.”
Codenamed Durango, the next gen XBOX is expected to be six times more powerful than the XBOX 360. There are a variety of speculations as to what will be the power under the hood of the Durango, whether it will have AMD's 7000 series Southern Islands GPU or the Radeon HD 6670, which offers support for DirectX 11. Only time can tell the specifications details of the device.