Microsoft has given the strongest hint yet that it will be announcing a new console - or at least something big -  six months ahead of the E3 annual gaming convention in June.

In a move that is sure to lead many to believe the company is planning on launching an update to the Xbox 360 console this year, Microsoft's Major Nelson has posted a countdown calendar to the E3 2013 event on 11 June.

Yes, June. At the time of writing that's 158 days away.

Of course Microsoft hasn't actually confirmed that it will be the Xbox 720, but alongside the countdown are the words "And it's on…"

Microsoft's hype machine gets excited about even the most mundane of games, but never this excited.

The countdown clock fuels previous rumours that the company is expected to be launching a new console in 2013.

Pocket-lint's own sources have confirmed that the Xbox 720 is and has been in planning for some time, but we don't have much more than that at the moment.

The Xbox 360 was first unveiled in May 2005 on MTV, for example, and released in November the same year. There's no reason to think the Xbox 720 will be on a different time scale.

If Microsoft were to launch a new Xbox console in June, new console would likely to be in the shops in time for next Christmas.