No desire? I've encountered this before. Just leave me alone with Sony for 45 minutes. One bottle of champagne, some soft music, and a good meal, and you'll have your Playstation 4 nine months later.

If you think that the PS4 and Nextbox will make another "Quantum leap" in graphics, then you're in for a huge dissapointment. The Wii U is stronger then the PS3/360, and the PS4/720 won't be strong enough to make the Wii U look like the Wii, unless they charge a lot for consoles again. The Wii U will be strong enough to get ports from the PS4/Nextbox for sure. 3rd parties din't abandon the PS2 even though the Xbox/GCN were stronger, and if the Wii U becomes everything Nintendo wants it to be, the hardcore might flock to it, just like they they flocked to the 360. 

Well the reason given, that developers can still push the hardware and improve their creations on the PS3 is alittle false. Sure developers can push the PS3 abit more, but compared to PC's developers have started to make products that they just can't produce on the PS3. Of course PC is always ahead of consoles but the gap is getting pretty wide and developers have been vocal that the limitations of the PS3 have been met.

The real reason Sony has no interest in launching a new console is profits. Sony is profiting now and they weren't for half the generation. Launching a new console likely at a loss (If Sony sticks to its predictable course) they will loose alot of money and not see gains for years to come. Unlike Nintendo who has profitted the whole time or Microsoft who has profitted alot more, Sony has alot more to loose from releasing new hardware.

However I think this is still all talk. If Nintendo releases WiiU in 2012 and Microsoft releases their next X-Box rumoured to launch as early as 2012. Sony will most definatly release new hardware by 2014. Thats the longest they could hold out logically. While they may not have an interest in launching new hardware, PS4 is on its way its in development and Sony will launch it if the competitors Both Nintendo and Microsoft launch hardware!

Releasing the consoles in 2014 would allow them to make that Quantum Leap in Graphics and stay reasonable with prices, not to mention it will also allow them to do 3D correctly and have every game running 1080p @ 60FPS minimum. Plus its not just about the graphics,  its about being able to make animations smoother and other things as well.  Is the Wii U gonna be capable of all of this?  Dont know,  but if I had to guess considering Nintendo's past, no it wont be.

As for the power of the Wii U, who knows where it lies when it compares to the PS3 and 360, no official specs have been released.  And the difference between the PS2 and GC/Xbox were minimal.   And 3rd Parties will abandon the Wii U if there is a huge graphical difference, and if the controller becomes cumbersome to develop for.    The Wii U would have to offer something extraordinary for the Hardcore to stop playing their 360s and PS3s to buy a new console.   Nintendo's inability to make a good online system is already one strike against them, and just making a console powerful enough to get Multiplats from PS3 and 360 isnt going to do it, since those systems have exclusives that each owner wants.  

I wonder how well a staggered console release would work. For example, release the Wii U in 2012, the next Xbox in 2014, and the Playstation 4 in 2016 (roughly). Every console would be the top of the line, every console would be the best selling, every console would have an identity. Always releasing at nearly the same time always seems to do more harm than good.

There's a billion things wrong with trying things this way (console gens are longer these days, competition having two years to thrive, lack of innovation in two years, etc) but at the same time, I wonder how it would play out.

Who could resist the Zapp?  I don't think anyone can.  You could exchange the bottle of champagne and sing one of your love songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIVMbRzZGEo

(sorry that is the best vid on youtube I could find of your song)

^^^@sethnintendo, that's not how I remember it happening at all!

lol you must have had a little too much to drink that night.  You cleared the entire restaurant with that song then crash landed the restaurant into a planet.  I believe this was one of your last words before crashing... "Ah, she's built like a steakhouse but she handles like a bistro."

You need to put the bottle down after 7 drinks Zapp or you are going to lose your galactic license!

Although that same episode you got countless Amazonian pu-tang!  Somehow even when you mess up, everything works out in the end.

Releasing in 2014 will allow them to do 3D and 1080p/60 FPS, but the Wii U already does all of that just fine. Also, Sony and MS will both launch sooner than 2014 to avoid giving away marketshare, thus eliminating that area of the debate.

By "considering Nintendo's past" do you mean 2006, when they intentionally held back on the power as a part of their Blue-Ocean strategy? Also, I should have mentioned this before, but another reason the PS2/PS3 jump was so big is because of the jump to HD. It's just another reason that the PS3/PS4 jump won't be as big as you think.

Developers are effortlessly getting PS360 games running on the Wii U, not to mention Nintendo touted it at E3 as "having all the latest technology". 2011/2012 tech vs 2005/2006 tech should tell you something reguarding power. 3rd parties are praising their new online system, so that shouldn't be a problem. 

Now about gamers. You said  that "just making a console powerful enough to get Multiplats from PS3 and 360 isn't going to do it". What makes you think that the Wii U won't have anything exclusive to offer? There is Killer Freaks. We don't know what 3rd parties have in the pipeline for it, and we won't know until next year.

The Wii U already does that just fine?  How?  Have you played it?  Not to mention I said at a minimum.  As there are some games that already run at those levels on PS3.  As for the laumch date for the PS4 and Nextbox, I love how you conclude that its no longer possible to debate it since you believe marketshare matters.  If they arent competing against each other it doesnt matter what their marketshare is.  And No I do not believe that the PS4 and Nextbox will be competing against the Wii U.  It will be the same way it is now with the PS3 and 360 against the Wii.  People dont see them as direct competitors so marketshare doesnt matter.  As they arent losing support from the game companies. 

And you want to know what the big difference will be from this generation to the next?  1080p @ 60 FPS minimums, Texture quality and animations.  Most games are in HD but not full HD, 1080p is twice the number of pixels as 720p, and then to get that to run a 60FPS, where as most nowadays are 30 FPS.  That is a huge difference.  Now all three of these things will come at a pretty high cost.  Will Nintendo pay that cost and release a console near the price the 360 launched at?  Doubtful.  Especially considering that the controller will eat up alot of the cost itself.  

The Wii U will not have all the latest technology for 2011,  to even suggest such a thing is stupid.  The console would cost $600+ and Nintendo would never release a console at that price point.  You may see technology from 2008 in there,  thats so they can keep costs down, as that is extremely important to them.  I have yet to hear a good thing about their online system, but I must be reading the wrong news articles.

Well 3rd parties arent going to release many, if any at all, exclusives on the system until it starts to sell well,  especially considering they could put it on the HD twins and have 100M consoles at their disposal.  And maybe Nintendo is going to have a bunch of great exclusives.  They have always produced great games.  But are they the type of games that are going to pull the people away who play Halo, Gears of War, Uncharted, God of War, Mass Effect, Gran Turismo, Bioshock, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Assasins Creed? That remains to be seen. But I am betting no, as it didnt happen this gen.