Though he was visited by a Microsoft official prior to his recent raid, the hacker who leaked information about the next-generation Xbox gaming console wasn"t raided on Microsoft"s request – at least that"s what the company is saying.
According to a new report from Kotaku"s Stephen Totilo, the hacker known as SuperDaE was met by a Microsoft intellectual property official in recent months. The visit followed leaks about Microsoft"s next gaming console, supposedly codenamed "Durango," as well as eBay listings by the hacker of a developer version of the console. The Microsoft official, Miles Hawkes (whose LinkedIn profile can be viewed here), asked SuperDaE how he was able to gain access to information on the company"s servers.
The hacker claims that by gaining access to Microsoft"s servers, he was able to create an account to the company"s Xbox Developer Program website. He then ordered a developer version of the console using the fake account, he says.
While little new information is given in the article, Totilo states that SuperDaE told him he preferred the Durango to Sony"s recently announced PlayStation 4 console, which the hacker also leaked information about prior to its announcement.
For its part, Microsoft claims no involvement in the recent raid by Australian police and the FBI. A Microsoft representative provided Kotaku with the following statement on the matter: "Microsoft did not initiate this FBI investigation with this individual, as has been asserted in some of the articles in the media. We take security very seriously and have no evidence of any compromise of our corporate network. We have no further comment on this matter."
Microsoft"s next-generation Xbox is rumored to be announced sometime in early April. Leaked hardware information indicates a significant upgrade to the company"s Kinect motion tracking hardware as well as an eight-core processor from AMD, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a Blu-ray drive and custom DirectX 11 GPU.
Source: Kotaku