With Sony’s announcement of the PlayStation 4 speculation naturally turned to Microsoft and the Xbox 720. Reports indicated that Microsoft was planning to reveal the new console at E3 but a few clues indicate that the Xbox 720 may be revealed in April.

An intrepid user on the NeoGAF forum discovered an interesting domain registration that could indicate that Microsoft may be readying an announcement of the Xbox 720. Eventcore, formerly U.S. Techs, has handled announcements for Microsoft and Xbox 360 in the past and have now registered the domain XboxEvent.com. As the forum user points out, Eventcore had previously registered XboxE32012.com, a website used as for press registration for Microsoft’s Xbox E3 2012 briefing.

Eventcore is not an enterprising company hoping that Microsoft needs to use that domain in the future and by registering it now they can then sell it to the company for a decent profit. So it seems as though XboxEvent.com will be used by Microsoft for something related to the Xbox but it is unclear what that will be but that has not stopped speculation that the software giant will announce the Xbox 720 will be announced in April.

CVG believes that Sony’s PlayStation 4 announcement, while not a surprise, definitely grabbed Microsoft’s attention. According to an unnamed Sony official, Microsoft was caught “off-guard” by the PS4 announcement and that they plan on countering Sony’s domination of the news cycle by announcing the Xbox 720 during a media event in April.

With rumors and speculation, anything can change. Kotaku also mentions a potential late-April date for the Xbox 720 announcement and they have been very accurate in the lead-up to the PlayStation 4 announcement. Crave, Cnet UK’s tech and gadget blog, believes that the PS4 announcement was impressive but did not think it warranted an immediate reaction by Microsoft.

The XboxEvent.com domain is not live and there is no concrete evidence that Microsoft will be announcing the Xbox 720 but there seems to be plenty of interesting rumblings that indicate Microsoft is planning to do something regarding Xbox in the near future.

To get a glimpse at the rumored specs of the Xbox 720, codename Durango, head here. 

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