Both companies are hoping to wait out the current generation, and extending an already elongated console life-cycle despite clear signs that Nintendo will launch its next machine by the end of 2012.

"Both MS and Sony are telegraphing to each other that they're delaying, to milk the current [generation] and fill in previous craters better," one insider who has worked with the first-party companies like Sony and Microsoft told us.

Other sources with access to first-party companies, speaking to Kotaku anonymously because they aren't authorized to be talking about Microsoft and Sony's plans, said that they too are hearing that 2014 is the target date, though some believe 2013 could happen if either company feels pushed.

Our insider believes that any new Xbox in 2013 would only be a Kinect-upgraded 360, not the next-gen console that would come in 2014. That source says that Microsoft doesn't even know what parts will be in the next Xbox. They say the company's board "is wrestling with whether to be profitable on day one," as Nintendo's Wii was presumed to be, or to once again launch a new console at a loss, which is what Sony and Microsoft usually do.

A wait for a new Xbox or PlayStation until 2014 would make the Xbox 360 the lead Microsoft gaming console for nine years and the PlayStation 3 Sony's chief console for eight. That would be an unusually long time for successful game consoles to retain their importance.