The big reason the PS3 cost so much was due to the diodes / laser thingies in the Blu-Ray player. They were forced into launching the system a year or two before they wanted to and thus had to make the price so high, and take a huge hit on the sales, to get Blu-Ray through. There shouldn't be any new format with stupidly expensive hardware in it to drive the price up like that, so the comparison is invalid imo.

However, we won't see a jump thats like compairing SD games on the Wii to HD games of PS3 / 360. However, if you've seen games like BF3 or Skyrim on PC high settings, you'll realise there is still a big gap more then capable of opening up when the consoles launch - how much it impacts on Wii's 3rd party support I don't know. I would imagine for the first few years PS3 and 360 will continue to get a lot of the games made for them anyway.

Besides, Microsoft have no idea what Sony are doing and will be developing their new console completely seperate to Sony - and they will make a powerhouse and sell it at a loss if they so desire whether or not Sony do. They can't change the thing after Sony announce the PS4 as they'll have already spent hundreds of millions on the R&D up to this point.

To me it's fairly obvious the PS4 and Xbox 3 will be a big graphical leap over the Wii U (Within what is technologically feasible with todays hardware) - it's the only reason the consoles still arn't announced and they're happy to wait it out a year or more with the Wii U on the market. Cause they need the extra time to make the 'gap' large and affordable.

Aaa yes, and just another reason why devs gonna make games for WiiU and next gen won't be a giant leap ;)

But I don't think PS3 will be able to compete with next gen. I think it'll be able to live side by side with WiiU a while, but sooner or later people are gonna migrate to Nintendo unless MSony releases their next things. And if MS releases Xbox3 way a head of PS4 sony will be in a pickle. imo

 I don't think we'll ever see a situation like the Wii vs PS360 next gen though - that was one system which was SD vs two behemoth HD systems. The gap was just... far too big.

 The gap between Wii U and Ps4 / xbox 3 won't be the same as something like the Frostbite 2 engine which runs on Wii U / Ps3 / 360 but when you run it on a super awesome PC looks amazing there too. I think we've reached a plateau where the game engines should be able to run on all 3 platforms with just scalable graphics, although in the future we may see new engines made which don't run on the weakest system. I don't know if publishers will ever see a demand for that any time soon though.

 The reality is most the first wave of games for PS4 / Xbox 3 are just gonna be things running on existing engines like that of Frostbite 2 or Skyrims engine. It also means developement costs shouldn't shoot up in the same way that SD to HD content did - albeit costs will always rise as the games market is very competitive, but costs rise with or without new hardware.

I agree with you. Completely.

MS won't take pity on SOny and doesn't really care about Nintendo. And that's why they won't win next gen if they keep on doing things this way. If they make an über console (skipping Xbox3 and going right at Xbox4) moste developers are gonna focus on Nintendo and Sony. Sony won't be able to compete against MS this time around, and PS4 will therefore be closer to WiiU specs and power wise. It'll be the 7th gen in reverse: ÜberBox far a head of WiiStation. Which one(S) do you think developers will focus on? ONE console or TWO?

We all know a lot of Nintendo fans was forced to by a PS360 so that they could get 3rd party titles (well, GOOD 3rd party titles). This gen, if Sony is on par with WiiU, Nintendo fans won't buy two consoles - and this will lead 3rd party developers to develop games for WiiU as well; they'll be serving 2 consoles equel in power. If this happens Xbox is gonna get ports that doesn't utilize it's ful power, meaning MS has thrown money away.

Go a head I say. Do it.

By this logic WiiU is in trouble.

I think that that was a real balanced, honest analysis of the situation.

Some people think that´s just a matter of better graphics/specs/ power... but what will really define who´s gonna take the edge on next gen is economy. Both the PS3 and the Xbox360 took a long time to pay for their investiment and really give their manufacturers a profit. Considering the actual financial condition of Sony´s - and the dissapointing sales of the Vita - I´d bet that they can´t afford to launch and sustain another high tech console for so long with losses, like they´re doing right now with the Vita.

XBox is clearly working on their next machine without much worries about what Sony´s doing right now, It seems that Microsoft is trying to create their own gaming paradigm with all those Fortaleza rumors, taking motion controls to a different approach.... if it´s a safe bet future will tell. The big question is: will they be able to afford two or more years with a product sold with loss, waiting/hoping for it to succeed?

I believe that both PS3 and XBox360 as products still have a lot of potential and we´ll still be seeing it on shelves for some years. It doen´t seem, right now, that launching a very expensive console is a good move for both Sony and Microsoft, specially because that would also increase the costs of production for third-parties...these are already experiencing some tough decisions because those high-cost games need to sell millions to give them some profit. Are third parties ready to spent 100-150 million in production of a single title for a new console that doesn´t have a good install base? It seems reasonable that they would rather produce for the cheap WiiU first and wait for costs to decrease.

My bet is that we won´t see the next Ps3 and Xbox until 2014 - or even maybe 2015. As consoles sales are decreasing year by year, I´m not sure if the average gamer will be able to afford a new $ 600 console soon.... Nintendo may really get the front position during this period with a cheaper and user-friendly console.

Let's see where pc gamers win.

Categories:

Graphic: PC hands down.  Console lifespan too long to keep up.

Games: Wiistation720.  PC specific games are too few and are stretched out too long.  Because at E3 the focus were on the big 3 with their new games, not Guild Wars 2 on PC.

Sales: WiiStation720.  How many PC games were top 10 games this week?  1.  Furthermore, who will take the biggest piece of the pie?  Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, HP, Asus, Gateway, Sony, etc...  To be honest, I don't know how that works.  I mean, ps3 published games will have to pay Sony for their device us, but what about pc?

Controls: (Taking only in consideration that most people don't know how to rig PS3/xbox controllers to connect to PC.):

Shooter: Mouse and Keyboard.  You may have your favorite, but I'd have to give it to PC. 

Fighting games: WiiStation720(again taking in consideration that most people aren't going to buy arcade sticks). 

Platformers: WiiStation720.  I like something that fits in my hands when I'm trying to make a precise jump. 

Motion games:  WiiStation720.  PC doesn't offer motion games.

Puzzle games: Depending on which game.  Tie or not apple to apple.

Things are different now though. The market isn't the same as it was, this gen proved a lot of things and the company that thinks on how the market is changing will win (might extend to next next gen).

- So this gen we had casual gamers jumping in the gaming market in drove. It's important to know what convinced them. They bought the Wii yes, but I don't think they were buying Nintendo more than they were buying a different approach to gaming. The controller was the problem for a lot of people and a lot of gaming styles such as dancing games and a lot more. Next gen consoles will have to get these in check, people will want to dance and train again. People will want to speak and get new possibilities and game developers want the same... WiiU is a step back in thet regard in my opinion, let's see what Kinect2 has to offer.

- People play on more devices than before... what devices are they playing with and why? Are tablets and smartphones gaming consoles? No, but they play games AND do other things like movies, music and the more important, APPs! Manufacturers will have to bring those to their consoles if they want to convince people to buy them. Windows 8 will play a huge role in the next Xbox because it will bring apps and a lot of those apps will make use of K2.

- The clouds are getting bigger and bigger... more and more people are buying online and don't feel like stacking games and films on shelves. Services on the clouds will be huge in a few years, so it is important for manufacturers to make a console that has the ability to run games through the clouds. Here again Windows 8 will play an important role in that area.

It doesn't matter if X8 or PS4 are wayyy more powerful than WiiU. All they need is to be more powerful and offer a variety of things people want (more than just gaming). If devs want to make games which requires a super powerful machine then they can just stream the game through the clouds. That's where we're heading anyways.

Don't you think nextbox may follow current-soon to be PC specs?