People would be fine with it.
We live in an age of yearly iPhone upgrades and a new tablet models released all the time.
It's not 1995 anymore.
The game industry has grown up too, one of the reasons people were upset so much with Sega was for starters most people in gaming back then were KIDS.
A new console meant being at the mercy of Mommy or Daddy (hot buttered popcorn!) to buy a system.
Today 16-35 year old males dominate the market and they have their own disposable income, of which $300-$400 is no big deal as a purchase. $300 when you're 12 years old is a small fortune, but when you're 25 with a job ... not so much.
Beyond that Sega never really supported the 32X or Saturn or Sega CD well ... the Wii U by fall 2015 with probably have NSMBU + NSMLU, Mario 3D World, Zelda U, Smash Bros. U, Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2, W101, Pikmin 3, DKC: Tropical Freeze, Fire Emblem x SMT, Yarn Yoshi, Wii Fit/Party/Sports, Mario Party U, possibly a Metroid game, possibly a Luigi's Mansion game, and probably be winding down with Super Mario Galaxy 3. Probably they could sneak in an F-Zero or Wave Race or two as well.
In other words, Nintendo will have run through the gamut of most of their franchise IP by then anyway.
Neither the XBox or GBA successors (the 360 or DS) were negatively impacted by their predecessors having shorter than average lifespans with basically shoots down the whole Sega argument.
