Not sure what it means to win if each Company is targeting different audiences.

Did the Wii outsell the 360 or PS3? Yes. Did core gamers prefer the Wii to the 360 or PS3? No. The Wii sold to a big casual crowd that otherwise would have never bought a gaming machine. Good for Nintendo. But means very little to the gaming community outside the the Nintendo base. The majority of the gaming community doesn't believe the Wii is the best system. Imagine if the casual crowd didn't buy the Wii. What would the numbers look like? Would it be below 75 million? Good bet imo

Microsoft seems to be putting their eggs in the casual basket. Also in the all in one entertainment basket. Not much in the core gamer basket. So "if" they sell 120 million units and 30 million more than the competition, does that mean they won. No. The gaming community decides that.

Just the way I see it anyway

i see the xbox being slightly ahead in north America, other the that, the Ps4 will be the clear winner in the next generation

by 2017 i expect
PS4 - 80m
720 - 45m
WIIU -42m

lol, it's 2006 all over again :D

People can show bias, regardless of what is in their sig.  I prefer to think of as I have the courage to show my support, no matter how the market is going. 

what so now any prediction in favor of Sony is the same?  I don't think we should make any hard number predictions (for years in the future) until we at least see a price for both systems and I would wait until after the first half year to a year on market to make lifetime predictions.  PS3 hasn't done badly (may end up around 100 million and possibly win the gen market share wise) and when you consider the $600 price tag, terrible architecture, lagging in online for the first couple years, and being late to market against the competitor going for the same market as them, you can see why people are optimistic about PS4 being a significant market leader.  That being said I agree that we shouldn't make predictions for anything other than launch sales and launch game sales for next gen consoles just yet.  Let's see prices and online fees first.

WiiU will obviously win cause of the 1 year head start!

Sony home consoles and portables are incomparable imo.  They've had 2 portables and their most successful one sold just 1/2 of its competitor.  They've had 3 home consoles with 2 being dominant market leaders and one on pace to be near 100m by the time it stops selling.

I also take issue with your statement that Sony first party has had no influence on their systems.  The PS3 gave no reason for consumers to buy it (more expensive and late compared to the system it was directly opposing with shoddy third party support and sub par online features at first) other than free online and its first party games yet it has outpaced the 360's sales and is probably going to reach at least 90m sales lifetime.  By process of elimination it's one of the two and I've personnally sold 3 people on PS3 just by showing them the first party games.  If anything Sony's biggest flaw is advertising, or advertising poorly with no features listed or gameplay showed,  its games.  Hopefully that will be fixed this upcoming gen.  I see nothing but an upward trend for Playstation this trend with most of these handicaps from last gen either being greatly reduced or non-existent.

at this point the only thing i feel confident in is a wiiU last place finish. wiiU is already trending below vita. there is just no way, imo, either ps4 or the next xbox will be that low.

Thanks to Rol, we now know how this is going to play out lol. PS4 will definitely stumble out the gate similar to Vita. 3rd parties have shown no confidence in next gen, thats why 360/Ps3 will definitely enjoy longer lifes than I expected atleast. This will only hurt Sony and Micro though not Ninty. Without full support the PS4 is destined to struggle until Ps3/360 lose their support. GT and Uncharted could be coming though but the last I heard GT6 is going PS3. That makes it even worse. Ps4 has virtually nothing that can push consoles, just like Vita. WiiU will recover this holiday thanks to Ninty releasing Zelda, 3D Mario, and Mario Kart. Ninty said they will be in playable form this E3, its quite clear if they have to, they will. In other words 3DS all over again.

I think WiiU is showing that brand loyalty from gen to gen isn't what most think it is.  As was shown by N64, Saturn, and Atari 5200 before it.  People buy what has the most appeal.  Maybe in Japan you could say that but then NA has changed from Sony to Nintendo to MS in the past 7 years so who knows.