doesn't matter, SONY is recouping the billions lost from the PS3 and MS has budgeted 500 million for the kinect suggesting they are in it for the long haul. A besides all points for MS doing digital only console but its still at least 3 years before that could be comerically viable 

In this market as soon as one of the "major" companies releases a system their competition is never that far; behind because none of them want to give any of their competition the opportunity to monopolize the market before they even bring their system to market. The reason we haven’t seen a system being released yet is that the Wii was far too successful for Nintendo to think about cutting its life short, and the first few years of the PS3 and Xbox 360 were so brutal that Sony and Microsoft want to prolong this generation to recover their losses.

With that said, I'm anticipating Nintendo releasing a new system in 2012 and I would expect that Sony and Microsoft would both release their next generation system before Christmas of 2013. By that time that Nintendo releases their next generation system, the XBox 360 will be 7 years old and producing a significantly more advanced system at a much lower price will be relatively easy; and, while Nintendo's system will (probably) be very powerful (compared to current generation systems) I would expect them to have their primary selling feature be something other than processing power.

Now there I completely agree; I didn't mean to infer that the next Nintendo would perform like the Dreamcast.  That's just not in the cards no matter what happens next gen.

My point was that I don't see Nintendo releasing a system so powerful that it completely dwarfs what the current HD systems can do.  Sure, it's possible they could design a console near the capabilities of Epic's new Unreal demo, but they would either have to charge a fortune for it or sell it at a major loss, neither of which is likely.  All they'd have to do to sell millions upon millions and start out profitable would be to release a console that slightly outperforms the HD twins at a mass-market price, with a new (or far improved) hook that makes everyone want it. 

Therefore it would be far more advantageous for Microsoft and Sony to roll with the 360/PS3 as long as they can, relying on their massive libraries and price drops before upping the tech level with successors.  Remember, if 720 or PS4 launch just six months after Nintendo (if Nintendo does launch in 2012), they'd be starting at zero systems sold and massively in the hole financially.  That wouldn't be a very good strategy against Nintendo whereas holding on to their current console and trying to mimic the new hook Nintendo introduces might be.

Of course I could be wrong and Nintendo could just create something we can't imagine that the 360/PS3 have absolutely no chance of hanging on against, thus forcing their hand; this is Nintendo after all.  But I will say that those who believe we'll see a new Nintendo home console this year and PS4 in 2012 are going to be very disappointed.

I would love a new Nintendo console in the near future. With PS3.5 like graphics and a Metroid Prime launch game from Retro. That would make me shit my pants. Seriously.

this is just too early for the two HD console, i'm sure nintendo will come out first for next gen, it will be something like kinect working with a new better and more comfortable holding style motion controller, a built in cam on the console to capture both your body motion into game at the same time using the new motion controller to perform much more better and easier way that all the control kinect have problem dealing with...

as for hardware, nintendo never go for really hi-end spec, probably slidely stronger than PS3 or Xbox360 is good enough since such level spec already don't really need costly to produce by that time, so they will still get profit from launch day even its not selling at high price...

isn't it great idea... xDD

First, PS3 was released 2006 (USA and Japan), not 2007. And if next generation would be released 3-4 years from now then this would be 2-3 years longer than any console generation before. Because console generations have only lasted 5-6 years until now. You also have to remember that MS makes 15-20 billion dollar profits every year so some losses from next generation console don't matter much to them. And Nintendo has a lot of money in the bank too so they could launch next generation console when ever they seem fit. But I don't think 2011 is good timing for any console for any console maker to launch next generation console so earliest launch is 2012...

My prediction for next generation is that Nintendo will release Wii 2 in 2012 and Sony and MS will release PS4 and 720 in 2013. Even that would make this generation a lot longer than previous generation. PS2 lasted 6 years, XBox 4 years and GameCube 5 years until release of successors. In my prediction, Wii would last 6 years, PS3 7 years and 360 8 years.

On the topic of Sony, this seems like a lose-lose situation for them. Given that they just started profiting off of the PS3, they wil never get out of the financial hole they are in now unles they pull a Wii/NES with the PS4. If Nintendo launches earlier it wiuld jut get worse for Sony due to reasons already mentioned. My guess is that Nintendo already knows this. If anything, I think they will launch as early as they can to capitaize on this. They probably keep the current Wii on the market as it would still churn out more sales given that it is a legacy console now.

If Microsoft makes decent money off of Kinect, they may not have anything to worry about besides giving up marketshare. If Nintendo launches early, I think Microsoft will launch soon after them, and won't hesitate to launch. They will probably leave the 360 on the market, but won't squeeze every penny out of it. Microsoft is in a better situation then Sony, but what they do depends on Nintendo. 

Nope. We like to consider generations as these solid boxes where the PS3 only competes with the Wii and the X360. But reality is not so cut and dry. The PS2 is also competing in this space still. And when the Wii2/HD gets released it will be competing with the PS3/X360.

Given past history, I highly doubt the Wii2/HD will even be more powerful than the PS3/X360. It might not even have a bloody hard drive. Which means it will have to once again rely on upgraded motion controls, which is iffy because you don't really get much better than motion plus (hardly ever used), and its first party games to drive sales.

Currently the PS3 has better precision controls than stock Wii motion controls (I argue even motion plus is weaker than Move, but thats a moot point), and probably will match Wii2/HD. Thus the only real thing going for it will be the first party games. Which SONY and Microsoft _can_ hope to match.

I predict, over the next 2 decades we will see 2-3 consoles from Nintendo and only 1-2 from SONY and Microsoft. That's right. PS3/X360 will go head to head with Wii2, PS4/X720 will go head to head with Wii3 and Wii4

there's not much to upgrade YET anyway. The battle for next gen is more of an upgrade in inovation(KINECT,MOVE,3D) rather than resolution, graphics and power not unless they will aim for UltraHD(OMG! Crysis in native 4230p!). Plus the fact that developers are still happy with the engine of each present consoles and some have yet to maximize(as per claim from both sides) the "potential" of the consoles 

Next Generation will be needing a lot of brainstorming in improving,adding whatever it is that would be needed

The absolute earliest we could see a next generation system at this point is Holiday 2012.