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.