Yesterday gaming blog Kotaku.com posted a story indicating that Microsoft may have pulled the plug on the original Xbox. The blog cites a "retailer source" that claims wholesalers have discovered that Microsoft has actually stopped manufacturing the Xbox, which would mean that the stock that's currently in warehouses is all that remains.

"Today I spoke to my game distributor and he informed me that Microsoft has officially discontinued the Xbox 1.0 today," said Kotaku's source. "It seems as though M$ has no intentions to keep their predecessor around and make it a bargain console like Sony did with the PS1. But then again, they never said they were going to."

We contacted Microsoft about this rumor, and the official line is that it's not true. The company plans on selling Xbox consoles "well into 2006."

"Our plans for the original Xbox platform remain unchanged from what we discussed last year at E3. We expect to continue to sell Xbox consoles well into 2006," a Microsoft spokesperson told GameDaily BIZ.

But how far along into this year does "well into 2006" actually mean? A comment on Kotaku's story from someone claiming to work for a game distributor reads, "The original estimate they gave us when the support for new XBOX titles would be cut was June'06 (that was back in August, 2005). In fact I wouldn't be surprised if that date is pushed back further due to the lack of consoles they've been able to ship."

For now Microsoft will continue to support the console and expects decent demand for it as well.

"We have more than 800 Xbox games in the portfolio today with many more being added in the coming years. Xbox is a great value for consumers and we expect to continue to see good demand for the platform in 2006," concluded the MS spokesperson.