The Xbox 360 may dominate console sales in the West, but it looks like its days may have become numbered.

Microsoft has announced that the next Xbox console will be revealed to the world at an event at its Redmond, Washington headquarters on May 21st. It's also announced that further details will be announced at E3 alongside a full list of launch titles for the new console.

Hopefully the event will answer some of the questions and put paid to some of the rumours about Microsoft's next-generation gaming console. Here's what we've heard so far:

Xbox 720 Cloud Entertainment

Streaming media became a major component of the Xbox 360 and the console became a media hub as well as a games machine. But would Microsoft follow Sony's lead and also offer their users cloud gaming on the next generation platform?

This month, Microsoft announced it had sold off its IPTV platform Mediaroom to Ericsson as part of a plan to focus its efforts on a new entertainment platform for the Xbox. The move continued Microsoft's ongoing app-based strategy for the Xbox dashboard over the last 18 months, according to the Verge, with the publisher looking to develop a cloud-based entertainment platform for its console.

Xbox 720 Release Date

Right now, there’s no concrete information about the release of Microsoft’s next-generation console but Sony’s PS4 reveal event in New York has set the rumour mill churning.

Industry analysts won’t make any solid predictions but the received wisdom is that Microsoft isn’t about to sit on its hands and let Sony steal the march on the next-gen.

One of the reasons the Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 in the West is because it was out almost a full year before the PS3 hit the market. Microsoft understands that getting to market first can be the silver bullet in establishing dominance.

Now that the Sony PS4 is off the blocks – with a scheduled release date of Holiday 2013 (that’s December in the UK) – the pressure is on Microsoft to step up.

Still, the only information that’s emerged thus far comes in the form a countdown clock that was posted on the blog of the director of programming for Xbox Live, Larry Hryb AKA Major Nelson.

The clock is counting down to E3 2013, where, if past history is anything to go by, Microsoft will likely unveil its next-gen machine.

Xbox 720 Games

Call of Duty: Ghosts will be given a full reveal at Microsoft's E3 Xbox 720 presentation suggesting that it could be the first Call of Duty game to be available exclusively on one console.

Elsewhere Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Black Flag has been confirmed as launching on the Xbox 720 whilst Watchdogs which will be arriving on the PS4 first before then arriving on Microsoft's next-generation console.

Xbox 720 Price

If the PS4 comes to market in the UK this year, Microsoft are likely to make every effort to get their next-gen console onto retailers’ shelves at around the same time.

With the Xbox 360, Microsoft released several variants with differing onboard storage options, which in turn, dictated the retail price point.

At the cheapest end, the entry price in the UK was £209.99. Taking this as a ballpark figure makes sense in light of a 2010-dated document that surface last year, stating the planned RRP of the new Xbox console would be around £200.

If that ends up being the case, this would make the Xbox 720 the cheapest next-gen console on the market.