No one expected Sony to announce the announcement of the PS4 a few days ago and look at the hype it has generated. The video on YouTube has over 4 million views and it's just 44 seconds of shapes.

To be honest this gif actually does a good job explaining the situation.

Microsoft will rush an announcement in order to combat Sony's. I'd say March.

Id say March or April.

The gif is entertaining - but I severely doubt it explains the situation. When Sony said the PS3's lifecycle was 10 years, MS responded with "then the 360's lifecycle is 10 years and 1 day". They never intended to launch first this next gen, and why would they? They can afford to see what Sony is offering, and then release something better for the same price. Sony is still posting losses, or nearly non existent profits each quarter - meanwhile Microsoft's profit "dropped" to 6.38 billion for this past quarter. The Xbox brand is very strong right now, and Sony doesn't have the resources to do what they did with the PS3. Somehow I doubt Microsoft is panicing. If anything, they will wait, let the PS4 hype have some time, and then spend an amount of money Sony can't match to overshadow the PS4's closer to it's release.

I say hint about it on February 20th but not show anything until E3

Yeah, they're going to ship 720 out on FEB 20th to stores, it will be like a secret surprise and kill Sony.

Well It could be funny, The 20feb Sony Show the ps4 to be in Sell the same day as E3.

Microsoft rush to be able to make the 720 in time. And BAM ! At The conference, ''just kidding'' 2015

Would it be unrealistic to expect the announcement at this year's GDC?

That's what they say every year...