I think it all depends on the sale of the Wii U. lets say the Wii U comes out and the PS3 and the 360 continue to outsell both the Wii and the Wii U on a weekly basis.
will Microsoft and Sony abandon consoles that have both accrued signifcant loss, to competite with a console that is comparable in power theshold. will they release new consoles to compete with the Wii U if their current consoles outsell the Wii U. i dont think so!
if the Wii U has the same games like what we saw at E3 (like Darksiders 2 etc) will Sony and Microsoft release new consoles to compete with games they will be releasing on their consoles anyway....
however i can see Microsoft using the situation to their advantage, and trying to release a console before Sony, in effect forcing Sony to release again. however things will be very different this time round. Microsoft will be competing with a Sony console at an affordable price, and with a huge gaming lineup. so its probable that Microsoft will use the situation to their advantage imo because they cannot risk competing with Sony head on with a now casual oritentated reputation.
however i think that this current gen should last a few more years like Aiddon said, because i think the technical capabilities of the PS3 and the 360 still seem pretty relevant and making games isnt cheap either, especially when big developers like EA, Sqaure Enix (and others i dont know) arnt making much money with high performance games, when Wii games, made a lot cheaper and with lower performance requirements are trumping everything these big publishers have got - barring of course Activision.
