Think about it.

This gen brought us a huge focus on HD. Many people purchased HD TV's for the first time, and wanted a system that could play in HD.

This gen also brought us an extremely rare "fad" known as the Nintendo Wii that was comparable to the Tickle Me Elmo craze. I highly doubt any of the 3 manufacturers strike gold like that any time soon.

It's also the first real gen where Online Gaming really took off across all the platforms. I expect an improvement from Nintendo next gen, but for the most part, Online has been maxed out on it's potential. The entire Fighting genre was re-born on consoles with large thanks to online play. SFIV and MK would only be fun for 10 minutes if it werent for online. It also made games like CoD mega popular due to the multiplayer aspect. But it's getting old at this point and there is a lack of variety in online games now.

I just don't see room for much growth next gen. Nothing "new" to entice gamers. 3D had potential but I just don't see it taking off the way HDTV's did.

Next Gen will see the smallest improvement of any generation leap, and lower sales than the current gen.

I would also like to mention that a lot of popular old franchises are dying out, and aren't being replaced by new ones.

I'm not sure if i can fully agree with you, I would imagine that the next gen will be just as successful as this current gen, just maybe the numbers turned around a little more

I'm not saying that you're wrong.  I'm just going to say that the video games industry has never sat still.  It's always innovating.  I thought video games had reached their maximum potential three generations ago.  Boy was I wrong.  If there's new technology out there (and there always is), you better believe they're going to find a way to use it for videogames.  Just wait til E3 before jumping the gun.

We know nothing about the next generation consoles, apart from a vague release timeframe for Cafe, and some wild speculation as to what form the console will take. Yet despite those handicaps, it is apparently obvious that because oneVGChartz user can't think of ways to entice more customers, none of these multi-billion dollar companies can figure out ways to do it? 

Growth Areas

1) The new market that the Wii struck. This market is big enough to support a huge number of games and platforms, from Wii, to DS to Kinect and Move. The only thing required to get these people to buy a new console is new games to play on it. 

2) Developing Markets - China, India, Brazil etc have a huge potential for increase, as does a large portion of Europe still.

3) Continued growth of the core market - this has been a pattern seen in every generation so far. This generation has already seen a massive jump in sales of core games over the previous, which in turn is much higher than the PS1 generation

The reason you have reached such a conclusion is because you started with incorrect assumptions. These are;

1) The assumption that high definition had any effect on this generation.

2) The assumption that the combined wisdom of thousands of experts in their field, spending 40 hour weeks on such a question, have not thought of anything you did not in about 1 minute of thinking.

3) The assumption that online multiplayer is somehow objectively better than local multiplayer. This is just one of the reasons why you are unable to grasp the success of the Wii.

4) The belief that old franchises are dying out and not being replaced. About the only large franchise that has died this generation is Guitar Hero. In contrast, look at the Wii xxx, Nintendogs, Professor Layton, Killzone, littlebigplanet franchises - all brand new this gen and are now huge. Additionally, titles such as Monster Hunter and Call of Duty were fairly small last gen, and have seen incredible growth in this gen.

Idk the industry has been growing since the nes right i dont see a drop for some reason.

i disagree with that part. theres been tons of new franchises this gen and there will also be tons next gen.

Disagree. Home consoles will definitely grow. Handheld market might be disrupted though...

First off, I highly doubt HD had anything to do with the success of this generation being that HD isn't even the primary selling feature of HDTVs; most HDTVs are sold because they're inexpensive, large, flat-panel displays and are often not hooked up to a HD signal.

What drove hardware sales this generation was multi-console ownership. While (probably) 10% to 20% of gamers in previous generations owned multiple consoles, I suspect that 50% (or more) households from this generation own a second console. This trend could continue in the next generation, and most households could own a second or third system if the console manufacturers develop systems that are unique enough to warrant purchase.

Couldn't disagree more with 9087. Videogames will be bigger than ever next generation. Like Dlewis said the technology keeps advancing and enticing all the current generation gamers to upgrade plus bringing in new gamers. Plus I'll add to that with more and more generations of young adults and kids becoming addicted to games there is such a higher potential for sales. My parents generation pretty much completely missed out of gaming as kids and teenagers. My generation will keep playing games when we are parents and older. I plan to play games until I'm old and gray and can no longer hold a control. Hopefully, videogames will be playable by brainwaves then. lol.

And like HappySquirriel says people might buy more consoles instead of just 1. I myself only have a PS3 this gen, but I'm already considering owning all 3 next generation if they are worth it.