Id agree for the most part however id put it in this order:

MS

Nintendo

Sony

The reason why i put MS ahead of ninty is because of how well kinect is currently doing. Its stil quite a hot item. I imagine MS will put a few "amazing" new features into kinect 2.0 and really get a wow effect. On the flip side of that the reception of the wii u has not been that great, although its way to early to judge that one since most casuals dont know anything about it.

The great thing about nintendo is their strong first party lineup like you say they are almost always gaurenteed a certain level of success.

Its quite clear though that sony is by quite some way trailing the two with regards to next gen prospects, despite being the no.1 console for 2011 (arguably).

I dont believe Activision will let Spyro go so easily as the recent game was quite profitable with those toys

BLASPHEMY!!!!!

those toys couldn't have brought in THAT much profit

oh okay, i see what you are saying now

i forgot that there was a Microsoft rumour surrounding kinect 2.0 being built in the system

I dont think MS will do it though.

yea and after the Super Nintendo era, Nintendo had everything to lose. Now look at where Nintendo is today ;) <-- THIS is why it's debateable

Surely we can agree that sony would rather be in the position they were in after the strong performance of the ps2...than they are now with the ps3.

yes, i agree

and I'm sure Nintendo said the same thing about the SNES going into the Wii this gen after the Gamecube last gen..

Not saying ps3 is doing bad...but its not doing as well as the ps2 and the brand "playstation" as well as "Sony" as a whole has lost some of its selling power over these last 4 - 5 years

The PlayStation brand can simply be re-strengthened next gen ;)

lol

and this is nothing!

there was more but i decided to take some stuff out to keep it "short"

1.

Sony cant afford another failed platform

who said that PlayStation 4 will be a failed platform? and what exactly do you mean by "failed"?

the PS3 was a sunken ship because of it's pricing so are you talking about "pricing"? if so, I already said that Sony confirmed that they wont invest a crap load in the PS4 like they did with PS3

And imo a beefed up ps3 with nothing new/innovative will not be a great success.

okay who said that PS4 will bring "nothing" new/innovative?

and by your logic i guess it is safe to say that Nintendo's Wii U is nothing but a beefed up Wii with a tablet controller and Microsoft's 720 will be nothing but a beefed up 360 with a Kinect AND a supposed Tablet controller(nothing innovative)

so basically the main competitors to Sony's PlayStation besides their hardware is of course the Wii Mote, Kinect and the new Wii U Tablet

Sony is already competitive to the Wii Mote with the PlayStation Move. If Sony just simply upgrade's the PlayStation Eye to the next kinect 2.0 level then of course they will be competitive to Kinect with the PSEye. Now If Sony makes a dedicated PlayStation Tablet, then Sony will also be competitive to the Wii U Tablet with the PS Tablet

^^ if they do this, basically every thrd party game developed around the Kinect and Wii U Tablet will also be brought to the PlayStation 4. PS4 wont lose any significant ground in the casual market just by this alone

when 720 and Wii U's sales explode in the Holidays, PS4's sales will explode right along with them. They wont be able to fall back on the holiday boost's to make up for the lower sales the previous 10 months and we all know that PS home console's sell more than the competitions Home consoles on a regular bases world wide ;)

2.

How feasible is that realistically? Lets say Wii U becomes the platform of choice for 3rd party developers...you saying sony now has to add a tablet controller? Similarly if kinect 2.0 takes off with the casuals...and gets good support, sony then needs to copy them?

i answered most of this above

and it would be kinda hard to say that Sony "copied" Kinect because from my understanding, the PROJECT NATAL tech was brought to Sony BEFORE it was known as Kinect with Microsoft. When Sony turned it down(being that they had PS Eye and they didnt really have faith in it at that time for PS3), Microsoft  THEN took advantage of it <--http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/703554/sony-we-turned-down-natal-style-tech/

if anything we can say that Kinect copied PS Eye

and didn't Sony already have Tablets before the Wii U tablet was shown? ;)

If Sony brings them as accessories day 1 with PS4, i dont think we can legitly say that Sony "copied" them.

so In all actuality, when PS4 is released, Sony wouldn't have copied anybody

if sony were to release all these things with the console the consoles price will be through the roof!

no, i'm not saying that they should be released with the $400 launch system. They should release them the way we seen Kinect and Move released this gen. They could maybe bundle Move,Big PS Eye and the PS Tablet with higher end PS4's at $500 each respectively

copying competitors does not ensure the same success. Look at wii/ move.

answered half of this above.

lol and the Move did its job. The move basically made it not possible  for the Wii to rise crazily over the PS3 in the holiday seasons like it used to

4.

  MS are in a better situation though imo...they have the biggest gaming region in their pockets.

yes, they do

I had a small little section about PS4 and the American territory in the OP but i took it out to make it shorter

maybe i should re-add it.. hmm..

..and a run away smash hit in kinect

next gen PS Eye will basically render Kinect 2.0 irrelevant ;)

You seem to associate investments with innovation...i do not. Sony can and should come up with something different something amazing if they want to stay relavant in the industry...this does not need a heavy investment but rather some insight and creativity followed up with a seamless implementation and a worthy marketing campaign. Also please keep in mind by innovation im not talking about graphical innovation etc. Im literally talking about anything significantly different that makes them better than the rest. Im sure sony is hoping for same....

i never said that Sony "shouldn't" come up with something new

i'm just focusing on the fact that they should be competitive with the already existing Kinect 2.0 and the already confirmed Wii U Tablet

In my opinion Sony is caught between a rock and a hard place and, unless they can take a radically different approach in the next generation, the PS4 will likely be the worst selling Playstation home console to date

this will not happen

and it really doesn't matter which PS Home console will be the worst selling. As long as the PS Home console hits 100 Million, They are good

EVERY PlayStation Home console that Sony released has sold over 100 million besides PlayStation 3. PS3 will of course eventually pass 100 million

Nintendo has NEVER had a Home console that passed the 100 million mark but of course the Wii will be it's 1st

Microsoft has NEVER had a home console pass 100 million but if the Kinect can keep boosting 360's sales in the holidays it could be Microsofts 1st to pass 100 million

so far Sony has 2 100 million + selling Home consoles under their belt

Nintendo has 0 100 million+ selling Home consoles under their belt

Microsoft has 0 100 million+ selling Home consoles under their belt

and there is no way in hell PS4 is going to sell less than PS3 ;)

I don’t think developers are looking to take on the high development costs

you're saying this as if every developer will have to spend the highest of all high price to make games for the PS4

now do you think Gust spent the same amount of money making Atelier Totori that Santa Monica spent making God Of War 3? OF COURSE NOT!

every developer isn't going to shoot for the stars man

and this is why we have developers like Square making engines that ARE next gen BUT cut costs by 30% at the same time --> http://www.edge-online.com/news/square-enix-shows-photo-realistic-next-generation-engine

consumers are willing to pay a premium for these games or the system

yes, and this is why Sony would be smart to release the PlayStation 4 at $400.

and i had a specific little section in the OP about the next gen retail game prices but i took it out to make it shorter

i wonder if i should re-add that too

hmm..

or Sony can afford to take on the hardware losses of a high performance gaming console; at the same time, I don’t think Sony can pull a rabbit out of their hat and offer a new user interface that is innovative enough to stand apart from the competition using a low performance console

This is why I'm saying that a $100 loss should be the MAX they should lose because it's pretty clear that they are going to launch the PlayStation 4 at a loss

now the PS3 was launched at $600 and lost arguably $200-250 each sale. now being that the price was already TOO-DAMN-HIGH, they were under EXTREME pressure by consumers and what not to keep dropping the price.

so every time the costs to make PS3 got lower they always had to drop the price basically putting themselves right back in that hole they created

Now the PlayStation 4 launching at $400 while losing something like $100 MAX would be perfect. The price would already be low from jump and they wont have to drop the price at specific times like they did on PS3. PS4 will hit the profit line a hell of a lot faster than when PS3 was supposed to originally hit the profit line

so basically you want a bigger controller?

I'm sure there will be a 3rd party DS4 controller released to solve this ;)

I don't get your logic at all. Sure, Sony sold 2 100m+ selling consoles, but Nintendo has 2 100m+ selling handhelds. Obviously Nintendo knows how to sell hardware as well.

Also, it doesn't matter how many consoles are sold if there is little to no profit made from them. That's where Microsoft and Nintendo are different from Sony. Nintendo has made money off of it's games and hardware since the beginning (with the exception of 2011), and although Microsoft's game division has been a loss so far, they have tons of revenue from other divisions to cover those losses. Sony on the other hand has been hemorrhaging money in almost all of its divisions for several years. They are losing marketshare in every area, and they have been getting a lot of mixed press. How the heck can they afford another console that produces the same losses and mediocre success that the PS3 has? It's just not possible for them to maintain their strategy of selling a high-powered console at a loss to gain marketshare and make the money back later. Their 10 year plan for the PS3 will definitely not work the way they hoped, since PS3 sales have been steadily dropping. Once the next gen hits, the spotlight will shift away from the PS3, X360, and Wii (Well, whatever little amount of spotlight the Wii still has) and onto the future. I just don't see the PS3 selling a significant amount of units in it's last few years, so I don't think it will ever reach 100m units.

You also say the PS4 can't possibly sell worse than the PS3. Why? The NES was said to be the savior of the gaming industry, and yet the Super Nintendo sold less. Even after the Super Nintendo, which still ended up being the highest selling console that gen, the N64 saw even less sales and less 3rd party support. The Genesis/MegaDrive was a huge success for Sega. It gained tons of 3rd party support and added Sonic to their 1st party offerings, and yet the Saturn quickly turned that success around. My point is that there is room for error in any business, and Sony is still perfectly capable of screwing up their next gen system. I would say they have an even higher chance of screwing it up, since they are under a lot of pressure due to their horrible financial situation.

....Skylanders brought in the 10th most profits from any video game from 2011