scottie on 03 July 2009
It depends on the company's aims.
MS released the 360 early because they had the aim of tearing down the mighty Playstation
The Wii was released late because Nintendo aim not for the destruction of another, but for their own profit. A company loses money for two reasons each generation change, the R&D costs of the console, and because if a gamer spends hundreds on a console that has slim or negative profit margins, they aren't spending those hundreds on games that have huge profit margins. As such, Nintendo always try to wait as long as possible between releases, because it saves them (and us) money
