It has been long speculated by industry analysts and punters alike, but several credible publications are now corroborating word from reported insiders that both the Sony's next PlayStation console, and Microsoft's next Xbox are due to arrive this holiday season.

The Wall Street Journal purports to have it on good authority that Sony's February 20th "PlayStation Meeting" event in Manhattan will indeed be the big reveal of their new device, currently codenamed PlayStation Orbis, and Polygon outlines reported plans for Microsoft's big Xbox reveal "this Spring" (Autumn for us South-landers, and a window that aligns with the April rumours we've previously heard), with both new consoles expected to have a wider showing at the E3 2013 event in June.

Of course, this is all intel pertaining to a North American debut, and console launches in other regions, from both manufactures have typically trailed in the past. So while it's now looking pretty certain that Santa will have a lot of new PlayStation and Xbox consoles for American boys and girls for Christmas 2013, we probably won't know for a while if Australians will be waiting until the new year.

Finally, a separate report over on Edge claims to have some new details on the next PlayStation's controller, describing a unit "the same size as an existing DualShock", but with a touchpad in the centre that uses the same tech as the PS Vita's rear pad, and a new share button for distributing images and videos recorded on the system, alleging that "The PS4 hardware will continually record the most recent 15 minutes of onscreen action".