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When Sony first unveiled the PlayStation 4 in February they confirmed that the PS3 successor would release this holiday season. Microsoft followed up in May with the Xbox One unveiling before both companies went head-to-head at E3 in June where the Xbox One was given a more specific release window of November 2013.

Two next-gen consoles both coming this year. We had the prices but no dates until last week at Gamescom where Sony confirmed a November 15th release date for the PS4. Now we wait for Microsoft to confirm when consumers can lineup the day before to get their Xbox One and it may be one full week sooner than the competition.

The news comes from a source of Kotaku who claims to work for a marketing company associated with Walmart. They shared a screenshot of an email for a conference call about planning midnight openings for video game-related releases.

The "XBox 1 Console" is listed for November 8th although without a "Confirmed" note beside it. It's long been expected that the Xbox One would release in November and it's likely that they've been waiting for Sony to choose their time slot before picking their own, perhaps ensuring that they come out the gate first.

Over the past few months it's been one of the hot topics of the industry that Microsoft continually alter policies to offer a console feature set more in line with what Sony confirmed with the PS4 after a series of negative and confusing publicity around certain Xbox One features pertaining to DRM, used games and indie developer support. This wasn't unlike how Sony paid close attention to reactions to the Xbox One unveiling before outlining their used games strategy at E3. The sensible business strategy therefore would be to let Sony make their mark first on the schedule and that might be why the date remains unconfirmed despite successful pre-order numbers.

As for the console itself, Microsoft employees who worked on the Xbox One are getting something special - a unique white edition of the Xbox One which looks very cool:

Xbox 360 players concerned or excited to get hands-on with the next-gen hardware will be happy to know that the Xbox One controller brings everything back from the 360 controller that worked so well for casual and eSports gamers and improves upon every element. It's been in development for over two years and aims to be more precise, more ergonomic and more responsive. The video up top delves deeper into the design decisions on every part of the controller.

Managers at GameStop are in luck as they will not only receive a free Xbox One (all GMs of the 6,500+ locations), but they'll all be getting a PS4 with seven games as well.

Are you jumping into the next generation of consoles this November and if so, what hardware and games are you excited for most?

Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.

Sources: AGBKotaku, Neowin