Word from Gamesindustry.biz today informs us of a that were originally intending on launching the 2 in time for 2004, or so leaked details on internal schedules suggest, however this is now off the cards with a mid-2005 debut said to be still under consideration. This juicy gossip apparently comes from the mouths of several unnamed developers already in possession of Xbox 2 information, who let slip the schedules they had seen, and revealed their shock at the original 2004 date.

Of course this year is now out of the question, the firm having originally planned to announce the new system's specification at GDC last month, however Redmond are apparently now pulling out all the stops for a release as early as possible next year in order to steal as much of a lead as possible over Sony. meanwhile may let their linger for some time yet, instead letting their portable take centre-stage.

"I think they underestimated how hard it was going to be to build a console that wasn't using architecture," a source in the know reportedly told GI.biz. "But they're to get to the market as soon as possible - they really want to reverse the head start that Sony had last time."

Several key Xbox development partners have reportedly already been persuaded to move their current developments onto the next-generation hardware, whilst hardly any PS3 teams are following suit, suggesting that Sony may indeed be some way behind in pushing their next lounge-monster out the door. Quite whether current-generation Xbox gamers will be happy with such a short life span however remains to be seen, and we imagine there will be outcry if a the new fails to support older titles from the original platform, which is still in its comparative infancy by traditional console lifecycles.

More as we get it.

By Luke Guttridge