This is pretty much what I've been thinking.  If WiiU and PS4 are in the same ballpark, with Xbox720 way out ahead in terms of power, then all multiplats will be made with WiiU/PS4 in mind.  This of course means that all the Xbox's extra power will only be utilized by 1st part.  Halo sure will look nice, everything else not so much.  With this in mind, there's no reason to power up the Xbox beyond the point of WiiS4 (yeah, I just went there).

So PS4 and Xbox3 come out a year later than WiiU, and offer almost nothing over them.  PS4 because Sony can't afford to, and Microsoft because it doesn't need to.  WiiU wins the gen again.

That would be cool. Great ports and less fanboy wars.

If we look back, the original Xbox360 launched for $299 and $399 so Microsoft will probably try to do that again since it has worked. But I don't think they will launch a console without HDD this time so they may use Kinect to diferentiate the regular and Pro models.

I wish I knew what you were talking about with all those AMDs and APUs, but alas, I don't =( But I get "Meaning it might be nearly identical with Sony", and if that's the case it all comes down to who's got the most diferentiating (damn that's hard word to spell!) console. If they're all in the same ballpark Nintendo wins. Hands down. Game over.

I'm basing that conclusion on the discussion you had with Viper1 (one of the best I've seen around here really - I learned a lot!). MS has the cash to push a monster console, SOny simply can't do that imo.

AMD APU line is the budget choice for PC builders.  Lots of cores with high clock speeds at a relatively low cost (relative to intel).  They are x86/64 chips usually with a competant integrated graphics solution on the chip.  While they are cheaper than intel's line, they also underperform it significantly.  I really wonder how an x86/64 chip will perform in a game console, since to my knowledge this will be the first time someone has used one for that purpose.

One advantage (?) of them using an x86/64 chipset in their machines is that allows Sony and Microsoft to put windows 8 or other x86/64 OS backend on the device with not much modification.  For windows 8, it'll take drivers.  Sony could potentially use a Linux backend with this chipset, and I honestly think they will since "Playstation is a computer, not a console" has become a sony meme.  They might actually convince relevant governing bodies that this time its true, and be able to dodge the export tax that they are constantly trying to avoid.

Yeah, I'm also starting to think that WiiU might take home this gen as well... 1 year head start, being able to play with the "big bois" power-wise, 3rd party support and (of course) superior 1st party games. Game. Set. Match.

haha so many words! and so few I understand in this context xD I'm sorry, I probably never will understand things like this - but thanks for trying! I kinda got bits and pieces, but nothing more...

I agree, but if Microsoft spend say $100 of their "budget" on packing a kinect 2 in with every system, it'll put them on similar grounds to Sony concerning the amount spent on the actual console.

Aaah yes, but as someone wrote here not long ago kinect 1.0 actually was a stripped down version, so 2.0 shouldn't be too expansive... If this is true that is! But they could sell it separately or have different SKU's... or they'll just lose $200 thinking they'll make it back in the long run (and this will of course see them exiting the HW business ;))