Microsoft's development partners now have final spec dev kits "in their hands", the platform holder has confirmed.

Updating fans about Xbox One's progress since E3, Xbox corporate VP Marc Whitten said that "this is the time where developers have final the dev kits in their hands.

"They're really working closely with us on how things have come together, and there's some things that have really started to come together quite well."

In addition to final dev kits being issued to developers, one of the major advancements since June's show is the increase in the console GPU's clock speed, announced by Microsoft earlier today.

Xbox One's GPU now runs at 853 MHz, up 6 per cent from the previously announced 800 MHz.

Another improvement is the addition of a graphics driver tweaked specifically for the console.

"Since E3... we've dropped in what we internally call our mono-driver," Whitten continued. "It's our graphics driver that really is 100 per cent optimised for the Xbox One hardware. You start with the base DX driver and then you can take out all parts that don't look like Xbox One and you add in everything that really optimises that experience. Almost all of our content partners have really picked it up now and it's really I think made a really nice influence."

Ramping up production on the console has also given Microsoft further insight into its yield and heat output.

"Another example is, this the time where we've gone from the theory of how the hardware works, what we think the yield is going to look like, what is the thermal envelope, how do things come together, to really having them in our hands. And that's the time where you start tweaking the knobs, because either your theory was right dead on or you were a little too conservative or you were a little too aggressive."

And if you're finding the wait for Xbox One's November launch tough, know this: Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson already has one in his living room.

Source: majornelson.com