With E3 out of the way and the sun beginning to set on the current generation of home entertainment consoles, recently released sales figures have revealed that Microsoft's Xbox 360 is currently beating Sony's PS3 in overall sales.

Microsoft Xbox 360 sales

A report released earlier this week revealed that the Xbox 360 is for the eleventh month on-the-trot the U.S.'s highest selling console.

According to the data released by the NPD Group, the Xbox 360 managed to shift 270,000 units this May -- a 39 per cent increase since last year.

The console managed to be the number one selling console for 11 out of the last 12 months and has seen 17 months of year-on-year sales growth.

Since the report, Microsoft released a statement promising that its console's seventh year would be its most successful, "And if anyone has any doubt that 2011 continues to be the year of Xbox 360, check out the latest numbers from NPD Group, an independent market research firm that tracks the digital entertainment industry."

Sony PlayStation 3 sales

The same report found that sales of Sony's PS3 hardware were up 14 per cent year on year.

The report highlighted the numerous troubles the company has had over the year as a possible reason for the recent slow-down in PS3 sales.

The biggest of these included the earthquake that devastated Japan and the slew of cyber security breaches it's suffered.

During the initial PlayStation Network outage that left up to 100 million PSN account holders' personal and billing information compromised, big-name retailers GAME and HMV published record PS3 trade-in statistics and a marked increase in Xbox 360 sales.

Nintendo's Wii U: All to play for before the next-generation

Already Nintendo has revealed that its new Wii U console will be released next year.

Additionally both Sony and Microsoft's new consoles have since been accidentally confirmed.

The existence of Sony's PlayStation 4 was accidentally leaked during a conference call with Sony investors, when participants asked about the dramatic increase in spending in the company's R&D department.

Today an unnamed source from Crysis 2 developer Crytek reportedly revealed to Videogamer Microsoft's intention to unveil its next-generation Xbox at 2012's E3.

The news that all three are now building new machines has led to speculation that the ongoing war for supremacy in this generation is soon to come to a close.

But, if the recent rumours about the next Xbox and PS4 are true then the current generation of console's should have at least two years to continue battling it out.

Even if revealed at next year's E3 it would be highly unlikely that the company would manage to get the console to retail in the same year. Making the most optimistic release date estimate mid-2013.

A fact that doesn't appear lost on Sony or Microsoft, both of which revealed a host of new games and features for the PS3 and Xbox 360 at this year's E3.

Whether Microsoft will be able to retain its current lead, over the currently bruised Sony remains to be seen, but if the overwhelmingly positive response to its E3 Kinect-heavy showing is anything to go by, it certainly does stand a good chance.

The one thing that is certain though, is that while Xbox may have won the battle, the war is far from over.

Nintendo Microsoft Japan Earthquake