'First' Xbox Elite Pics - Confusion Reigns

Spanish site Consolas has got the jump, apparently, on even Microsoft itself and, on the day of the European PlayStation 3 launch has published what it claims to be the first pictures of the uber Xbox Elite.

The Xbox Elite - remember the 120Gb HDD next-next-gen console that has been drifting around the Internet like granny's ghost at Sony's birthday party - is apparently upon us, with packaging complete.

We have been unable to reach a source at Microsoft at 9pm to comment or - more likely not - on the truth of the apparently official images (Consolas states, "Confirmada 360 Elite: imágenes oficiales de la Xbox negra" - "Confirmed 360 Elite: official images of the black Xbox").

It then states a price of $479 and as street date of April 7th 2007.

As we go to press, we've only seen the shots from Consolas which, as they are claimed to be official Microsoft productions, we're showing you. It strikes us that the timing for the release of these shots is as suspect as the shots themselves.

The idea that a PhotoShop 'expert' can look at these lo-res images and make a decision one way or the other, however, as to their reality appears incredibly naive. This is nearly as naive as the idea that Microsoft would leak shots of a new incarnation of its prime piece of games hardware with less than a month before its 'official' street date. And remember, the 360 only launched in November 2005!

If April 7th is indeed the date for the Elite to hit retail, we think that the company would already have started providing quite a fanfare. So, right now, the street date looks wrong, the leak looks wrong, the logistics look wrong, and most of all the commercial aspects look insane.

This would be very much like Microsoft telling its retail partners, "Look, forget selling anymore 360s for the next two weeks. We're leaking a brand new version."

There's three ways to read this, two of which are glorious conspiracy - one of which is the probable truth:

1) Sony has created these images and the rumour in the understanding that Microsoft's retail partners will suffer as fanboys wait for a unit that will not appear.

2) Microsoft has created images and rumour in order to cut into the PS3 launch.

3) Someone with a great deal of time, energy and good graphic design skills has faked the images in order to chase them around the Internet.

4) The images are real! The Elite will be out on April 7th And Microsoft doesn't care about its current retail chains, installed user base - and someone is going to get sacked.

^{Source: Consolas}