I really like this observation.

Console gamers want to buy games.  They're holding out their dollars and saying "Give us something good and we will pay for it."  Publishers just need to find that magical way of convincing consumers that their game is good.

the real issue is that many many gamers only buy 2 to 3 games a year

all of my friends play fifa and cod nothing else, the occasional mass effect or battlefield but nothing else.

also a huge chunk of my friends are addicted to pc games (im one of them) which are all about pvp or pve gameplay such as lol generals wow and diablo.

ive realised that what most people care about these days is a good pvp experience and that is why games like cod and fifa which have huge brands are taking a huge part of the market.

If I were paid $60 for 1 hour of work and I could work the next 7 hours for similar pay rate. I would maybe work another hour to cover food/shelter and use the remaining 6 hours to play a game I bought for the first $60 :)

I think that by the next generation (not the up coming with WiiU, PS4 and nextBox - but the 9th gen) we'll see a more stabile gaming market: the freshness of mobile games will have worn off. The iPhone will be at least 10 years old when 9th gen comes, and the iPad will be at least 7, so by then I think we'll be able to see how the future for consoles will be like.

In 5 years we'll know how things will be the next 10-20 years of gaming. And if Nintendo manages to sell 50-75 million 3DS, they'll make more handhelds.

Or perhaps the future will be even harder to predict? Apple's market may keep getting greater for decades.

The only thing that would make it harder to tell the future is if iTV (or whatever it'll be called - they got that TV-box already, but I'm talking about an actual Apple TV) is released in 4-5 years time offering awesome game experince, OR PC's can over great virtual reality - you know, where you put on glasses and see everything in 3d... Something like that. Or maybe if we'll get small micro chips in out heads, streaming games directly to our brains rendering controls utterly obselete.

Or if iPad 6 starts stealing market share from dedicated home consoles, while the iPhones/all smartphones destroys the handheld market completely.

Apple will do everything they can to increase their market, and they can do a lot with the resources that they have.

iPad 6 will be out in about 3 years time, and if smartphones start to destroy the handheld in 3 years time my prediction will still hold true: when gen 9 comes rolling we'll know how the future will look like in the coming two decades

I disagree. That is nothing but a foolish assumption.

The future will never look clear, and market-changes tend to go faster with time.

Yeah ok, "clear" perhaps was a bad choice of wording - but I think we'll see how things are gonna play out. We still won't be able to see who's gonna win the generation, who'll sell the most SW and such - but I think we'll see which kind of future console will be heading towards.