LOL, right now it is a race between Sony and Nintendo to see who will bomb that hardest. I could easily see something like 60MM WiiU, 60MM PS4, 75MM 720 dedicated game machines and 50-75MM 720 set top boxes. In the US microsoft should easily outsell sony and nintendo combinesd.

Why are you using the Vita vs 3ds sales as evidence that the Sony brand in your words has 'largely evaporated'?

Since this thread is discussing how Wii U will do against the PS4, a console not a hand held, why not use the last couple of years of PS3 sales vs Wii because I'm sure that would really strengthen your point of view.

Tagging thread for future lolz.

Nintendo will win Japan. No doubt. No question. They will have the best Jrpg because of the gamepad. The only reason the ps3 did decent was because they had JRPG that wii couldn't handle. I doubt we see JRPg in japan costing more than 8 million to produce with the market they have currently. Plus with 3ds being able to to work with the console in some way that will only help.

Europe. Europe is going crazy over the 3ds. Week or two ago 3ds out sold vita 7-1. Europe has become NINTENDOLAND. Plus with Fiffa coming to WII-U now they will only dominate Europe. Plus with the Wi-U gamepad your able to play the game with just TOUCHSCREEN basically. This will as EA said up the casual market up for Wii-U and Football game(soccer in America). Plus Nintendo is smart and makes europe games like London games which is good seller in Europe. Nintendo loves Europe and Europe loves Nintendo. Plus look at the launch titles ZombiU which will get a good buy in UK no doubt. Uk will love a game FINALLY based in London. Rayman is Europe title and is loved there.

America. Well that one is the odd ball you never know with them. But if they make Wii-U games like Game & and Wario were you only use the touchscreen the Wii-U will do great. Nintendo is king in local play with was a huge selling point in Mario bros Wii and Wii-U. Family Play. Mario BrosU is a big casual seller over time. If they bundle it which I personally think it's to good for but if they did it's over. Iwata would drop the bomb if he did this. The internet is irrelevant compared to the THE POWER OF MARIO.

Uncharted 3 4.4 - 10.6 million.

Sony showed this gen that people only bought the PlayStation 1/2 because of DVD/AUDIO player. And the fact that it was THE ONLY Third Party system. Xbox took over like a beast once PS3 lost it's third party power.

Next Gen.

Wii-U Number One

Xbox 1080 Number Two

Ps4 Number 3

Ps4 only sold closer to Xox because of Bluray which people instead of gaming. Look at sales to system compared to xbox360.

Ps3 was a joke this gen and lost it's identity.

People don't tell me about BUT THE EXCLUSIVES.

Look how many failed. Barely sell in comparison to Wii and Xbox360.

Wii-U if being sold at 300 dollars will do better because it's cheaper.

8th generation is the sequel to the 6th generation with Wii U being the PS2 of that era.

Right...

So the market will shrink to below 200 million consoles, meaning 20% of the users we have right now will vanish....the first time in 25 years.

The fact that you even wrote this means I do not need to state why this reads so horribly wrong. It is blatantly obvious.

I think Wii U will do pretty good.
It can get close to 100 million if Wii U does get serious 3rd party support.

It`s possible that Wii U might not be as hot as Wii was, because of the controller. But Wii remotes are still there; the Wii U gamepad, despite more complex, has some resemblance to a tablet and that is good for Wii U; and of course, asymmetric gameplay might just be fun enough to actually interest people.
But, even if Wii U doesn`t get the same casual/non-gamer support Wii had, it can recoup it`s losses with the Wii owners who did buy and HD console for... well, pretty much everything Wii did not have (online play, HD graphics, 3rd party support) and that could really hinder PS4 and Xbox 720.

More, so far, and seeing as there really isn`t anything concrete on MS and Sony`s next consoles, it`s hard to predict there moves.
On MS side it`s easy to see a Kinect 2.0 and a regular controller (probably with a screen on it), suppport for Smartglass. Problem is, all won`t be anything new when the console is released.
Kinect is already a holiday seller and i honestly doubt a better version will work for Xbox720 the same way Kinect worked for XB 360.
In essence, if all MS introduces next generation is better versions of existing products i honestly don`t see how that could work for them to really push consoles.

PS4 will be in the same situation. More of the same or something new?
What differentiates Sony from MS, for me, is that, with time, Sony pushed PS3 so well, that the playstation brand became very strong on home consoles - less in the States, to be fair. And that could really cause some damage specially on MS`s side, because, if they do release around the same time, Xbox won`t be the only HD console, only true Online play console, like 360 was for more than it`s advantage year, but also that one year of lead on a very important period for home consoles.

The way i see it is that introducing something new without competition worked really well for MS. Yes, Sony did some serious mistakes, but still, even without those, MS would have still pushed 360 as a serious competitor because it had the time to spread the word on how only 360 could provide online competition, HD graphics, an HDD, great 3rd party support.

Wii U gets the same chance that MS had to position itself as unique and that it can really get 3rd party support like in the old days.
If things work out for Wii U - and it`s launch line-up is already a clear indication of that - it can be first next generation.

I think the WiiU will reach around 100mil again, like the Wii...but whilst still first, the market will be much closer sales-wise.

6 years after launch:

WiiU- 93mil
PS4- 75mil
720- 62mil

Dont see Microsoft making ground, PS4 making it back slightly.

Also-

3DS- 128mil
PSVita- 54mil

Sorry, Microsoft will release Avalon, a virtual reality system that combines Kinect and 3D VR Glasses (Avalon).  It becomes hugely popular world-wide.  EA Releases Sims Pets: Cats for Avalon resulting in billions of people around the world purchasing the system, software, and subsequently going catatonic.  Not to mention the gamers that die as a result of what becomes known as the Red Ring of Death -- an Aortic aneurysm experienced by a circle-jerk of "hard core gamers" that can't believe that Kinect continues to be successful despite their hatred of it.