I honestly think that the next Nintendo console will be released November 2012.

They'll probably go for an improved wii. Either way Nintendo have shot themselves in the foot. They may be ahead at the moment, but the market buying the wii will not bother to buy an improved wii as surveys indicate that many wiis are now dust collectors, with serious gamers playing on either the xbox or ps3, resulting in all the hardcore franchises on either the ps3, pc or 360, and not with nintendo.
It's hard to see what Nintendo could do as many people who own HD tvs either already own a wii or are not bothered by one, as hd is for impressive visuals, something the wii is incapable of, and without bluray, is still incapable of delivering in terms of media playback.

With monster power? Hell no! I rather something impressive and unthinked by us.

That's the issue. I do think that Sony and Microsoft would like to have a good couple of years to really drive their consoles in the black, but neither of them could afford to wait around while Nintendo potentially co-opts them with a console that could eat into their respective bases. If Nintendo moves in 2011, they're going to have to move by 2012 at the latest

Which they could certainly do. It's almost assured that there's an Xbox 720 and a PS4 floating around out there, just nothing that's consumer-ready at all, but motherboards are probably designed, specs laid out, major design challenges specified, they would just need to get dev kits out there and knock it into something marketable.

I wouldn’t say that anything has been finalized for either the next generation consoles (at the moment) but they have all probably been in a position since the middle of 2009 that given 6 months notice the hardware could be mostly-finalized; with some time for tweeking clock speeds and what not. From 2005/2006 until 2009 these companies all have the luxury of working at a high level and coming up with abstract ideas about what they want their hardware to be; but after that they’re constantly working under the knowledge that one of their competitors could announce the release of their next generation console and force their hand.

Something like this in 2012 makes sense imo.  Full Wii backwards compatibility too, and it'll probably uprender the old games (similar to wjat we see with Dolphin).  I'd also say they'll drop GC backwards compatibility (both games and controllers) but add GC games to the VC (along with Saturn/DC hopefully).  Blu-ray is 100% in, given Nintendo's close ties to Matsushita... I can't really see any reason they'd go for CBHD.  Maybe for iQue Wii HD. ;)

does anyone remember one reason why they said they were waiting to see which format was gonna win between blue ray and hd dvd? cause when it was time for the next console they were gonna use the winner of the two. so the next nintendo will be blue ray. i personally think it wont be as powerful as a pc at least for a few months but it will be very very very powerful and use current tech and possibly the motion controls. the gamecube used all the tech used for the n64, the snes used the tech created in teh nes. so im guessing teh next nintendo will not only use the wiimotes but be a more accurate ones.

my opinion is i think they will release a HD version of wii that can connect to tv's using HDMI instead of analog. especially more and more in the next year or two HDTV's becoming the norm at least one tv in every home. and within 5 years every station being HD by the end of the 5 years. so why go normal dvd when you can use something better by the time the next system comes out. this is the problem i think for the other two systems. they boast and gloat about their graphics and performance when for the same amount of money you can build a pc and have the same look and feel as the other two. also with the 360's controllers working with windows 7 and games also i see pc's and the 360 getting combined within the next two gens for the xbox. which would be a good idea for them to make even more money since everyone has a pc now.

I also hope for GCN games to be offered in the VC ! I missed some games and i would like to have the chance to play them !

I hope for a better internet-based service, those friend codes are awful compared with PSN and the XBoxLive !

I'd be fine with FC if they were system wide, and not game specific.  Hopefully they move to at least that...

They'd probably drop the legacy controller ports, yes. However I would say that they will still allow people to play GC games as theres no harm in it. If you get Wii you get GC. The Blu Ray vs CBHD is a piracy/cost issue. The only thing against CBHD is whether they have the form factor they want for the drive whilst the benefits are lower cost and no piracy as they won't enable movie playback anyway.

The funny thing is, im pretty sure they'd go for something like a 4 Core menlow CPU (low power AMD) alongside a decent GPU which will still be terribly slow in comparison to future CPUs but it will be far easier to work with than the current console CPUs we have in the DX9 delights. However it will blow both the PS3 and Xbox 360 out of the water with total ease and at a lower power consumption such will be its efficiency.

Their biggest challenge if they go X86 is probably to stop hackers, so maybe they ought to offer Linux support standard as if they have an X86 CPU they will be targetted by people who want a cheap HTPC.