According to a post over at Develop Online, Electronic Arts is testing out the next generation Xbox but as of this point there is no new console design included. Instead, the hardware for the console is being delivered in a plain jane PC shell.

EA developers are getting to grips with the tech to create first-generation software, Develop has been told.

“Quite often when new consoles come around they’re packaged into a PC shell, but actually what’s inside is an entirely new console,” a senior, trusted, well-placed source said.

Microsoft has declined to comment. EA has declined to comment. Develop’s source is not employed at either company.

While they originally reported that we might get an announcement about the new Xbox console at the upcoming E3 event Develop Online has updated their post with a note saying that an additional source that says that an E3 reveal is “highly unlikely”.

image is a concept for the next-gen Xbox by djeric

[Cross-posted at Winextra]