I think a lot of people who are currently critical of the Wii U may end up eating crow in the long run ...
Sony is not in the financial shape to produce the kind of console people are expecting and sell it at the price people want. Sony will (most likely) need to produce a system and sell it for a price where it breaks even. This means that building a "PS2" would result in a system that was priced at $400 to $450 (more with a hard-drive), and building a "PS3" would result in a system that was over $800. If they have any fancy components (tablet controller or 3D camera) it will also increase the price of the console. Ultimately, for Sony to stay at a reasonable price (below $400) it will likely translate into fairly modest performance.
Microsoft is in a different but similar position. As a company they're highly profitable, but they took massive losses on the XBox line of products for 8 years before they started turning a profit, and investors were not happy with this. Microsoft realistically can not afford to take another $4 Billion loss to launch a console without having investors screaming for blood, so their losses will be far more modest; and it will have to be recovered by XBox 360 profits and next generation game sales. While Microsoft has more flexability that Sony on price, expect a modest system especially if they bundle Kinect with it.
Now I could be wrong (I don't have a crystal ball after all) and Sony or Microsoft could favour a premium system sold at a high price, or they could gamble with large losses, but I'm doubtful they would take either strategy in the current environment.
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