A Microsoft employee appears (somewhat unwittingly) to have confirmed that HDMI output is on its way for the 360. His comments add further weight to the still-to-be-confirmed rumours that the Xbox 360 'Elite' is on its way.

We say 'appears' because this is a single line in one forum post - there is still no official confirmation from Microsoft itself.

On Microsoft's MSDN forum one developer posted the question “Will the HDMI output on the revised 360 require any code changes”. A response was forthcoming from Shawn Hargreaves of Microsoft stating simply, “No changes required.”

This could be read as a confirmation that, at the very least, HDMI compatibility is on the way for the 360. SPOnG contacted Microsoft for further confirmation but no comment was available. However, as a poster called Cynanbane points out:



It's possible that all the rumours about the 360 Elite are entirely wrong. Microsoft could simply be planning to add nothing more than HDMI to future 360 units, but it seems unlikely.

The confirmation of the 360 getting HDMI capability matches the comments of Dean Takahashi from The San Jose Mercury News about the Elite over the weekend. Passing on information from “several sources” Takahashi said of the Elite, “I believe it will have an HDMI connector so that you can connect at the highest speed to a high-definition TV.”