For several months, the consensus among the video game industry is that Sony and Microsoft would wait until E3 2013 in June, or shortly before E3, to officially reveal their next generation successors to the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 game consoles. Now a new report claims that Microsoft and Sony may buck tradition and reveal their next game consoles several months beforehand.
Videogamer.com reports that the latest print issue of Game Informer magazine claims, via unnamed sources, that Sony and Microsoft will both hold "special Apple-style press conferences" in March for the first official looks at their next generation game consoles. The article claims that the events will be close to the 2013 edition of the Game Developers Conference, which is being held in San Fransisco on March 25-29.
If true, this would be a departure from how Microsoft and Sony announced their current generation game consoles. Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 a few days before E3 2005 and Sony also announced the Playstation 3 during E3 2005; Nintendo revealed both the Wii and the new Wii U as part of its E3 activities.
However, it"s not unknown to have a game console get its first official reveal during GDC. Bill Gates famously announced that Microsoft was entering the game console business in March 2000 during a speech at GDC, although the final design of the Xbox itself was not revealed until CES 2001.
Source: Videogamer.com | Image via GDC