Rumors are running wild surround the possiblity of an Ultimate Xbox 360 SKU being announced at CES this coming week. Stuff magazine has even gone on record to post the specs:

1080p HDMI output, built-in Wi-Fi, hi-def audio output, cooler 65nm hardware architecture and a near-silent fan.

Ok, you say. All of those features, save built in Wi-Fi and hi-def audio output, are on the current batch of Xbox 360 consoles. Well, to top that off, they’re saying the Ultimate will feature a 320GB hard drive and built in HD-DVD drive, making it the Ultimate media center.

I’m not sure they’re that far off the mark. Rumor started when the Seattle Times published an indicating Bill Gates has something up his sleeve for the Xbox 360 in his final keynote address this Sunday. Gamers have taken this and run with it to come up with all kinds of wild ideas. Most of Stuff’s ideas are very plausible, however I have to bring up the internal HD-DVD drive.

How many times has Microsoft stated it will never put an internal HD-DVD in the Xbox 360? I’m sure it’ll take more than one hand to count. They do have a track record of going back on their word, so it wouldn’t surprise me that much if this turns out to be true. But still, I’m going to side with Microsoft, temporarily, on holding them to what they’ve said in the past. Now let’s all sit back and watch that bite me in the ass in a few days.