Of course, it's impossible to make a decent prediction about the next generation with the information that we currently have, but we can at least  take a look at the current state of the industry and work out how this might transfer into the next generation.

- Are you expecting the next round of consoles to sell more than their predecessors? Less?

- How will the growth of virtual copies of games affect the next generation?

- Will handhelds sell more than home consoles next generation? Less?

GO!

not even the slightest clue what will happen next gen. especially after how crazy the current gen has been

Return of Apple:iConsole coming to destroy everyone yay

I think handhelds won't do as good.

Virtual copies won't be compulsory, but they will se an important increase. Specially in third world countries.

That generation of consoles will be longer, but sales... I can't think how they will be, after this crazy generation.

Depends if the casual audience is still into the Wii U as much as Wii.

I have a theory MS will make a Kinect 2.0 and have it made into every next gen Xbox.

Theres also the late to the party factor. MS could very well beat Sony, or loose, it all depends on who releases first. With Japan and all being the reason.

Sony - More
Nintendo - Much less
Microsoft - Not sure

Sony handheld - around the same
Nintendo handheld - Much less

i think things will be allot different next gen. if Sony can continue to release the blockbuster first party ip, then they will have a big advantage, but the marketing will have to be there as well and they'll have to do the one thing PS2 did that the PS3 didn't and thats release a game in every genre exclusively on PS3 making sure that the appeal is there.

WiiU is just like the Wii and will attract many of the casual it did this gen. but not all of them. Nintendo is blind and lacking a direction games wise so if they want the hardcore back then third party is not the way to go cause gamers can get that anywhere, and i think thats what Rol has been saying since Wiiu was announced.
long story short Nintendo will have to make their own hardcore ip and not rely on 3rd party.

MS has the biggest advantage in America. yea i think they'll be riding high off the 360's succeed. i don't think MS will support first party ip so i think the rest of the world will be all Sony and Nintendo.

if i'm wrong then its a mostly close race, but if Sony and Ninty back catalog from the NES and PS1 then MS could face an up hill battle even with having classic Rare ip.

Vita will be the bigger hit when it comes to handhelds.

Home consoles:

Nintendo 73mil
Sony 63mil
Microsoft 57mil

Handheld:

Nintendo 85mil
Sony 60 mil

For Wii U i think that if Nintendo keeps appealing to the casual crowd in a original way (the controller is, again, a plus) and if in the first two years Wii U gets all the hardcore titles (specially beneficial if the controller is put to good use) plus a few great exclusives i think that even if sales don`t explode like they did with Wii, i think Nintendo has a great shot of deluting that success throught the years of the console. At least i think that Wii U will reach the point Wii is in now.
For PS4 and Xbox720, is hard to tell. Both of them pratically had the core market of PS2 for themselves - to me the great reason why they both did so great so far. Again, if Wii U gets a hold on their market, they might risk losing marketshare. Two questions are to be made: can they also attract the casual market? Will they be innovators like Wii - and Wii U to some extent - was?
If they can do this, even if they lose a bit of the core market to Nintendo they will probably be able to steal a bit of the casual market from Nintendo.
In the end, it`s all about games, being attractive to all kinds of gamers and, of course, the price of consoles.
Overall, i think that they might sell a bit less.

About digital purchases. I think the console market isn`t ready to go 50/50 on retail vs digital, but i think all of them will try to raise the bar on this one. The who adds some form of cloud service will probably standout the most.
On more "appstore" kind of games. Given that WiiU`s controller is appropriate for those kind of users, i think Nintendo has a market there willing to use that kind of service, given that Nintendo provides one.
Let`s see what MS, Sony and Nintendo announce in regards to this.

About handhelds... honestly i think that the market will shrink. Nintendo will, of course, be the one who suffers the most but not because of the rise of smartphones and tablets and at the same time because of that.
I don`t see 3DS and Vita as a next step in handhel gaming, more of an evolution and because of that both consoles might lose some gamers.
If both consoles had a service like appstore, with the same business model, i think it would put them on the map. At least that.
It`s still very early and both Nintendo and Sony might in one year or two present some kind of game that makes them sell above expectations. Who knows?

I have a feeling sales are going to be down across the board. Between the bad economy and the fact that all three developers seem to be increasingly shutting out mass market appeal for their games, it'll be a somewhat slow generation. Nothing is going to touch the DS and Wii success for awhile, and I doubt Sony and MS's consoles will sell any more than their predecessors. The only console I can see actually being more sucessful than its predecessor is the Vita.