Will All Three Next-Gen Consoles Be Unique?

[Gamerace]

Nintendo we know - WiiU

MS I expect to focus on making the Xbox brand as universally appealling as possible and launch with a strong focus on casuals as well as core. I also expect they might offer cloud streaming of Xbox games to Smartglass (aka tablets with some controller connectivity) thus entering the portable market through the backdoor. The next system will be more powerful for sure, but not strickly for graphics sakes. Largely to support better Kinect, Smartglass streaming and other innovative means of entertaining. Strong focus on being a hub for all sorts of entertainment.


Sony is the wild card here. They could stick with their currect (failling) strategy of making the 'best' console repeating the mistakes of the PSP/PS3/Vita or they could go in a completely different direction and incorporate Playstation into every Sony smart TV and device. Again game streaming would likely be one feature but Smart TVs could be upgraded PS3's as well. Or Sony could take a page from Nintendo and launch a unique device that surprises all of us.

I'm sure Sony and MS are looking at the Social, F2P and mobile apps markets very closely as this is where the gaming $$$ are going and coming from. They will want to somehow be apart of and not apart from (like WiiU) those gaming spheres. How they achieve that, I'm not sure.

The last factor is I truly believe WiiU will under-achieve but will be quickly followed up by Nintendo's 7th home console. It's looking more likely that WiiU launches 2012, Xbox 720 2013 and PS4 2014 and then Wii3 in 2016. This gives Nintendo a large strategic advantage if they launch another truly innovative machine as MS/Sony will be too committed to their loss leading machines to possibly respond.