No sooner has Sony announced an event to unveil the "future of PlayStation" - widely believed to be the PlayStation 4 - than a report appears suggesting European gamers will have to wait longer than their Japanese and American cousins to get one.

History does suggest so, with the PS3, PSP and PS Vita all launching in Japan before Christmas in their respective years, several months later in the UK and Europe (the PSP almost an entire year after its Japanese release). Even the PS2 hit stores in the UK seven months after Japan.

However, Edge magazine is not relying on mere tradition to make the bold claim that Japan and the US will get the PS4 before Christmas, the UK early in 2014. It claims that it has been told so by "development sources with working knowledge of both next generation consoles".

Read: PS4: Everything you need to know

Those sources cite "complexities involved in European distribution" as to why we'll get it later than other regions. If so, it could be a blow to Sony in the battle with Microsoft over the hearts, minds and wallets of next-generation gamers.

Something doesn't quite ring true about this to us though. Sony's release history aside, why would it be going to the extraordinary length of launching its new console in February, months before many expected it to do so at E3 in June, and stealing a march on Microsoft in the meantime, only to potentially cede the European market because of distribution complexities?

But then, stranger things have happened.