Microsoft Xbox 720 & Kinect 2

Whether it's called the Xbox 720, Xbox Kryptos or something else entirely, early Summer 2013 should see the announcement of a new version of the world's most popular games platform. With a new ecosystem that will attempt to spread across various devices and platforms, the new Xbox will prove an exciting new update on the seven-year old 360 by allowing users to begin a game on an Xbox and finish it off on a Windows 8-toting smartphone or tablet, as well as offering optional PVR-style TV recording skills.

Hardware could be updated, too, though we can't help feeling that the inclusion of a Blu-ray drive isn't just overdue, but bordering on the irrelevant. That said, cloud gaming will continue to be something to watch rather than rely on in 2013 -€“ blame worldwide bandwidth paucity for that -€“ so Blu-ray could well appear for the first (and last) time.

However, all attention to hardware upgrades will focus on two major upgrades; a Kinect 2, which could recognise the gestures of up to four players, and Xbox controllers that either include - or actually are -€“ tablet-style screens.

Game on. We can't wait.