Whereas the rumor mill has been quite active regarding the next Xbox console (codenamed "Durango"), there's barely been a whisper of the next PlayStation. With signs pointing to the next generation of consoles launching in 2013, what has Sony been up to?

According to the latest rumor, "select developers" have already received dev kits for the PS4 since the beginning of this year. However, "finalized" beta kits won't ship until the end of 2012. Inside the box is an AMD x64 CPU and AMD Southern Islands GPU--a drastic change in architecture from the IBM/Nvidia core in the PS3.

Read more: 'Orbis' to use high-end GPU »

Once again, rumours have started spreading that a next generation of consoles will be unveiled at E3 and, once again, they're being denied. Sony consumer products president Kaz Hirai is the one doing the denying this time, insisting that a new PlayStation won't be announced at the video games show in June.

Read more: 10-year life cycle still planned for PS3 »