Anonymous “industry sources” have told Kotaku that Microsoft and Sony are holding out until 2014 before launching successors to the Xbox 360 and PS3, leaving Nintendo to fill that gap with the next Wii.

“Both MS and Sony are telegraphing to each other that they’re delaying, to milk the current [generation] and fill in previous craters better,” says one of Kotaku’s moles.

Other insiders “with access to first-party companies” have told the site that the next Xbox and PlayStation will turn up in 2014, although this could be pushed forward to 2013 if either company “felt pushed” to do so.

Assuming this is true, that puts the current generation in an unusually long cycle of nine and eight years respectively.

“I think we’ll see a game of chicken between Sony and Microsoft,” industry analyst Billy Pidgeon of M2 Research says. “Sony definitely isn’t launching a successor before 2014 and could stand to benefit by having Microsoft launch first as PS3 builds in to North America and builds a strong position in Europe. Microsoft claims there’s a lot more room in Xbox 360 for developers to max out, but here PS3 could have a strong advantage.”