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" Microsoft is rumoured to be preparing a reveal of its next Xbox at E3 2012. Eurogamer has recently had this claim backed up by a number of game industry sources.

Eurogamer has also heard a 2014 release of the next Xbox was planned by Microsoft, but this has now been brought forward to 2013 as a result of Nintendo's confirmed 2012 launch of the Wii U.

Additionally, sources have indicated to us that larger publishers and developers already have target specs of both the next Xbox and PlayStation to help them with their development "

Sounds reasonable to me.

MS right now is enjoying the success of the X360 and Kinect right now and they aren't going to lose that momentum right now with Halo 4 and other strong 3rd Party games coming out next year but despite that they know they need to release their next console close to the Wii U, which is around about max a year gap. They can't afford to leave a 2 year gap between it and Wii U since now the Wii U is more than capable of HD stuff and other things.

And obviously the same applies to Sony. The PS3 isn't going to slow down anytime soon with all the quality exclusives and 3rd party games coming out for this year and in 2012 and they've been saying all this PR stuff about, don't expect a PS4 soon, blah blah but that's all just PR talk. For the same reasons I gave for MS, Sony certainly cannot afford to leave a 2 year gap between the PS4 and WiiU release.

A 2013 release is a must for both consoles with 2012 reveals.

This. I'm expecting for some time for PS4 to release by early 2013.Maybe it would be better for X720 to release by next year's holidays, but that's still cool.

hmm not sure they NEED to..... I mean who here thinks more than 50% of the casual that bought Wii will actually buy WiiU ????that's the problem with casual.... they are not pure gamers that wait for the next tech improvement or the new generation..... they bought Wii like they people use to buy monopoly board games.... doesn't mean they will buy from the same company again or the newer version.....

now beside that.... what cross-X said holds.... if we are talking about 2014 or 2015 planned release for XB and PS, in that case the gap might be an issue..... but if it is later than that.... WiiU will just get whiped out by raw muscle superiority.....

let's put it that way.... PS and XB can be profitable for at least 5 years with no big issues..... by then price of high end components will have droped hugely and WiiU has not that much of a advantage on that side (from what we have seen/heard) compare to current gen..... so I can see MS and sony deciding to stay like that droping price year after year.... or bundeling games like crazy and stand against nintendo.... until they come up with a really innovative product way later at a good price tag...... overshadowing WiiU completely..... that's why a lot of tech prophet have said that Wii HD is a little bit late....

a longer life cycle might be actually the right decision for Sony and MS this gen..... only time will tell