Microsoft has once again spilled the beans on their upcoming plans for the next Xbox, which is operating under the codename Durango. According to a job posting for Microsoft, the publisher and software creator is looking for a Marketing Manager to help usher in a new age of Microsoft products and software that would include Office, Windows, and the next Xbox. (The listing itself has been altered to no longer include Xbox, but at one point it did mention Microsoft's console brand)

Obviously this is all information that gamers would expect Microsoft to be planning for, but the most important part of the listing is the time frame. Microsoft lists 18 months as when this next phase should take place and be completed, suggesting that the Xbox 720 will be on store shelves before the end of 2013.

Earlier in the week, Microsoft's Brian Hall, in talking a little bit about the future of Microsoft, let it slip that not only was the company working on new versions of Surface and the Windows Phone, but Xbox as well. Yet another claim that reiterates Xbox 720 is coming.

In the past, gamers had expected that after an E3 2013 reveal that Microsoft and Sony would announce their console's launch dates to be Holiday 2014, but apparently Microsoft is hoping to get yet another head start, the same head start that Nintendo could care less about.

As expected Microsoft is vehemently denying Hall's claims in regards to a new Xbox rolling out, stressing that the comments were made about future Xbox games and experiences being developed for new technology like Smart Glass. It's almost as if Microsoft refuses to acknowledge the existence of a new console, even though plenty of information has already been released about it, including rumored pictures of the current phase of dev kits.

We're currently on the precipice of something big — a new console generation — and rather than generate some genuine fan enthusiasm, publisher's are trying to keep everything as tightly under wraps as possible. Rather than say a new Xbox is in the future, but that they aren't prepared to reveal more about it, Microsoft is trying to twist comments by their own people into even more convoluted statements.

Will Microsoft be releasing the Xbox 720 by 2013's end? What will the timeline be for next-gen console announcements?

Source: CVG, Microsoft Careers