Sega Says ‘Wii U’ Out Between May and August 2012

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Worried you may have to wait until holiday 2012 for Nintendo’s newfangled console-tablet contraption? Don’t fret: Sega says the Wii U should be out around this time (or a few months later) next year.

In fact Sega’s using verbs like “is”—not “might,” “should,” or “could”—when talking Wii U release timetables.

“The Wii U is coming out next spring/summer,” said Sega marketing exec Alan Pritchard while chatting with GameSpot about Aliens: Colonial Marines, one of the publisher’s upcoming games for the Wii U.

(More on TIME.com: Wii U Specs Disclosed, Including 25GB Optical Discs)

Nintendo’s official word on the Wii’s release schedule is simply “2012.”

Okay, Pritchard’s just Sega’s PR guy, which means he probably heard an officially unofficial something, somewhere and probably mistakenly channeled that into a declaration. His slip—if it’s even fair to call it that—occurred while he explained why upcoming platformer Sonic Generations would miss the new platform. Generations is due out November 22nd, 2011.

“It’s more likely that it would be a separate stand-alone installment or in conjunction with a multiplatform release in the future,” said Pritchard of hypothetical Wii U Sonic-series game. “But to bring out Generations on a platform six or eight months after we release PS3, 360, and 3DS probably won’t be the best strategy.”

Six to eight months after November 2011 would put the Wii U’s release at some point between May and August next year.

(More on TIME.com: E3 2011 Interview: Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Talks About ‘Wii U’)

Nintendo took the wraps off the Wii U last Tuesday at E3 2011, mostly to fanfare—albeit shareholder disdain. In his post-E3 analysis this morning, Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter called it the show’s “most impactful [sic] ‘reveal’,” though he adds it’s arriving “two years too late” and suggests Nintendo’s next console will “either be a phenomenal success or phenomenal failure…depending on pricing.”