Historically, I don't think that has ever happened before.  That makes it hard to predict.  I think the PS4 would just get ports from the other two consoles.  The games would look a little better, but no where near what exclusives would look like.  The PS4 would really need to run away with the gen to get games that really took advantage.

On the other hand, for the PS4 to be much beefier, it is going to have to be more expensive and possibly later.  A console that is late to the generation and the most expensive could end up being DOA.  Sony would have to probably take a pretty big loss on each console if they went this route.  After this gen, I don't think they want to do that.

Edit: Misread

Actually, the GC was probably only about 10% more powerful than the PS2, 20% is too much.

Same here. I expect the Xbox 720 to be at *least* 10 times more powerful than the X360.  Even just that at 1080P will improve aliasing, shadows, etc.  Skyrim is Great, but it doesn't look as good as say, Cameron's "Avatar" in 1080P on Blu-ray.  The X360 is the best of PC’s in 2004, nearly 10 years later, I expect more.

And, as others have said, I think 4K television will be much more common in a couple of years.  So I think they should consider what people are going to be watching 5 years from now.  And 1080p 3D will be a rather common feature on many TV’s in the next 5 years.  And speaking of Gears of War 3, have you seen it in 3D?  (It’s amazing) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsIJgVrbKq4

Plus, if the X720 is only 20% more powerful than the WiiU then what will distinguish it?  That much power difference is not very significant and hardly noticeable.  It’s much less than the difference from 720p and 1080p.  And if they both run all 3rd party games, then it’s just Halo vs Mario, and Blance Board Wiimotes vs Kinect.

Plus, if the Kinect 2.0 has anything similar to the new HD camera requirement on Window 8, then it will need more power to crunch that information, and more improved speech recognition.

I hope this is a false rumor, people need a great reason to get a new consol and if the blur between the WiiU and the X720 is so small, even though one will come out a year later; I think it will hurt the Xbox

yea the 6670 is only really arround 3x which would mean the dual GPU rumour would have to be true for 6x of course 3x the power would make the 20% more powerful than the Wii U make more sense... The entire rumour seems wack TBH 

If it really was a single 6670 then the 7970M would actually be more like 4x more powerful for ~ the same TDP...

It would if 6670 wasn't low end card. Even $100 radeon 5770/6770 outperforms it nicely.

If Sony goes with card equal in power to 6770 or 6850 then they would have huge advantage in fps in ports and absolutly kill them with exclusives.

Well let's consider casuals for a second Microsoft needs a low price point. and having the most powerful hardware is not going to get that low price point like they had with Xbox 360 . We all know Nintendo is going to be the least expensive in any given gen . they have been for 5 gens strieght and I very highly doubt that will change soon . so if wii u does in fact come out at 279-349. I d be concerned not only because 360 currently cost $300 . but no console will sell at 500-600 . we already seen 1 fail completely at 700 forgot which console it was but it was back before the ps2 era and PS 3 got lucky to cut the price other wise it probably wouldn't have got where it is today. i think it was the jaguar not sure but you can watch angry video game nerd . i think he has it. but ya forget the power of the 3 what will be the starting pricing thats all I care about and the games if 720 really only opts for kenict im out don't have the space to use the one i got now , as for PS4 and Wii U thats up in the air . I am getting the first one out though so i will be getting a Wii U then 2 yrs we shall see what happens with the other 2 lets focus on Wii U first

I have absolutely nothing to worry about with Sony or Nintendo for launch titles. Microsoft wont be able to depend on third parties  like they did when there was no competition so they are the weakest link starting next gen if they have no Halo. They better come prepared. I can count on them for decent hardware, but games are always a worry. I will not be buying a launch console unless they shape up. PS4 isnt even a question and knowing the fact that Sony has party chat in mind for the Vita and the next console seals the deal for me. 

I wonder if the Wii-U specs forced MS to act more conservatively.

I think they realised that if they went too advanced if an effort to deny 3rd party games from the Wii-U they would have priced themselves out of the game.

After seeing the PS3 lose $200 per machine and billions of dollars in total all for a handful of better looking exclusives, this is the much safer option.

6 times more powerful is not much really.. is it?