Wednesday 9th November 2011 by Alex Winehouse

The next generation XBox console has been codenamed 'Project Ten' and will be released in 2012, according to a new report.

Technology reporter Paul Thurrorr has made the claim in the Windows Weekly video show, and has also said that Microsoft will be "going down the Apple route" with the new machine.

He said: "What I'm hearing is [the next XBox is] going to come out for holidays next year, meaning that they would almost have to announce this at CES, wouldn't they? That's my rumour... that we'll expect to hear something about that.

"They're going the Apple route where they want this thing to integrate very tightly with Windows 8 and Windows Phone, which is a problem with the current XBox."

Microsoft has often spoken of its ten year plan for the XBox 360, which launched in 2005, but has failed to rule out a successor launching during this period, with European XBox boss Chris Lewis telling CVG in August: "We think we're a little over halfway with the life cycle of the console, but that's not to say there won't be an overlap. I'm not going to announce specifically or talk about timing. But you could imagine there could be overlap, it depends. We're not being specific about the next generation at this stage."

Nintendo are expected to release their new console, the Wii U, in time for Christmas 2012, and it is thought that Microsoft will stop at nothing to release their new hardware before Sony get a chance to unveil the PS4.

Forty years of games consoles...