Sony shares leap 8 percent after Xbox One announcement

Sony's shares jumped up 8 percent immediately after rival hardware maker Microsoft formally unveiled its next-generation Xbox One console.

At time of writing, Sony shares on the New York Stock Exchange are up 8.35 percent on where they were before Microsoft took to its custom-built stage at its Redmond campus to announce the successor to the Xbox 360. Sony shares are currently trading at $22.72.

Sony, which announced its own next-generation PlayStation 4 back in February, has recently been on the offensive. It teased the first shots of its still-unseen PlayStation 4 hardware yesterday, and took to Twitter today to jest that the day of Microsoft's Xbox One announcement was a slow news day.

Microsoft calls its Xbox One an "all-in-one" experience designed to function as the heart of a user's living room. The new hardware, which will launch worldwide in 2013, features 8GB of RAM, a Blu-ray drive, an x64 processor, and USB 3.0.

To keep up with the latest on Microsoft's next-gen unveiling, check GameSpot's Xbox One hub.