Colin Sebastian from Baird Equity Research believes that the PS4 will launch in October and be followed by the Xbox 720 in November.

Despite this claim, Colin also notes that he had recently heard word of "early production issues with Sony's PS4" and that could shift the release date to a later date.

"Given the fragile state of the console game market, we expect the E3 trade show in June will take on added significance, most likely providing the industry with the first public opportunity to examine next-generation hardware," Sebastian stated.

"Our checks suggest that next-generation console hardware will be largely built from 'off the shelf' high-end PC components, along with hybrid physical/digital distribution models, enhanced voice controls and motion sensing (Kinetic integration with every Xbox), and broad multi-media capabilities," he detailed.