Yesterday we reported on a rumor that suggested the
Xbox 360 was going 'open source'. Well apparently that's
complete hogwash as Gates has flatly denied that third-party manufacturers will be able to license the OS of its
next-gen console, at least for the foreseeable future. According to Gamespot all the fuss was caused by one article in
a Japanese daily newspaper, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, which was then picked up on by the rest of the gaming press. The
idea of an open source Xbox 360 was obviously too tantalizing not to report. Who wouldn't want to be able to
tweak the next-gen Xbox to play high definition pr0n your collection of ROMs under emulation?
You'd think that now Gates has got in touch with his homies over at Gamespot, everything would be back to normal. However, Gates has left room for third-party companies to manufacture Xbox in the future. Why anyone would want to do such a thing (Microsoft is expected to take a $75 hit on every console it sells) is beyond the average mortal's understanding. Anyone want a chunk of the expected $243.2 million Microsoft is expected to lose in 2006 due to underpriced hardware? Didn't think so.
