Rumor mills are working  overtime in the last month or so, with a variety of stories floating around on the web. Stories such as, when Microsoft and Sony might launch the next versions of their game consoles. Amongst such rumors one mentioned  as to when Microsoft and Sony would announce their next-generation game consoles. With the possible announcement coming  late this year at E3 2012 in June, with the idea of grabbing headlines  ahead of Nintendo’s Wii U, which was shown at E3 2011 and is scheduled to launch sometime before the end of 2012.

According to reports by IndustryGamers.com, they have made contact with a solid source who claims that at least one, if not both, of Microsoft and Sony’s successors to the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 could actually be available for the users by the end of 2012, rather than by the end of 2013 as others expected.

The “source” said:

The ‘trick’ to these rumors is not the console manufacturers themselves, but rather the chip makers. All indications from them are that things change significantly (ie next generation) come November of this year. As such, it has been my presumption since the middle of this past year that we would see new boxes in the market for Christmas of 2012.

Although, it is very unlikely that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo will all release their next generation game console hardware by the end of this year, which would mean we could be in for a  clash of the titans scenario. But, Microsoft did successfully launched the Xbox 360 in 2005, a mere four years after the launch of the original Xbox which was a huge stride in gaining a strong foothold in the console market. And so it is very much possible for Microsoft to release Xbox before Nintendo’s Wii U launch and spoil the party.