Sony's PlayStation 4 Orbis and Microsoft's third Xbox games consoles are both schedueled to be released in time for Christmas 2013, according to the latest online rumours.
According to VG247, the next Xbox (codenamed Durango) has been internally confirmed as having a Christmas 2013 release, and will have two AMD 7000-equivalent GPU's – likened to "two PCs taped together".
The "Durango" will also reportedly have a Blu-ray drive and a four or six core CPU, with one reserved for the OS and another one reserved for Kinect – which will now be built-in. Whisperings of an 'always-on' anti-piracy internet connection being required to play games is worrying, but it's early days yet.
The Sony Playstation 4 (also known as the PlayStation Orbis) will apparently beat the new Xbox to the shelves, according to another VG247 source. Sony is reportedly striving to get a head start on Microsoft with its next-gen console, and developers like Ubisoft are said to be already familiar with the PlayStation 4 Orbis' hardware.
Specs-wise, the PlayStation 4 Orbis will supposedly be ditching Sony's custom Cell architecture found in the PlayStation 3, and will instead be also rocking an AMD GPU as well as an AMD CPU to boot, as previously reported.
This change should ensure that developers will have an easier time of creating games for AMD's more standard architecture – hopefully resulting in a strong PlayStation 4 Orbis launch line-up, as seen with the PlayStation Vita's solid launch titles.
Both Sony and Microsoft have stated that there will be no new consoles revealed by them at this year's E3, but we're keeping our fingers firmly crossed for at least a hint at what's to come – so stay tuned for more juicy details as and when we get them.
