In a recent interview with Games Radar, Dean Takahashi, author of the recently released book "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked", has claimed that Microsoft ended production of the original Xbox as long ago as last July, and that all consoles sold since have been drawn from existing inventory.

t was certainly never in doubt that Xbox production would halt with the next-gen machine's arrival, but it's surprising that Microsoft pulled the plug at least three months before 360's November 2005 launch.

Takahasi was granted exclusive access to Microsoft's inner circle while researching his book and he explained to us why Xbox was killed off. "Microsoft wound up with a console that had a lot of money going out with every box that was sold. It would never really sell enough games to make up for the fact that Microsoft was losing so much money on the hardware. It would just be an endless black hole for money."

It's well known that the Xbox was a loss leader for Microsoft, so the decision to end production is not surprising, if true.