Exist

Next Box already sounds too expensive and too complicated. Nintendo has fooled Sony and MS into trying to adopt a casual gaming model which they have no affinity to. This is why Sony for example finds it so hard to make the Move relevant and something more than a big waste of money. MS on the other hand has made some money off the Kinect, I think, but do they really want to spend millions more on it?

As far as I can see it, Nintendo wants to, or is trying to, move slowly away from Motion (as oppose to Casual) gaming. As like Miyamoto said, it is Motion gaming that turned some people (like myself) off of Zelda Skyward Sword. Nintendo it seems to me is embracing a new model, Asymmetric gameplay, which will keep them one step ahead of Next Box and 720. Nintendo also would have at least a 9 month jump on the competition and be hundreds cheaper. I don't see how Next Box and 720 can disrupt Nintendo if all the above turn out to be true.

Nintendo consoles have around 30 years experience and established brand name recognition, second to none in the video console industry.
The Wii U is launching a year ahead of its competitors off the back off the success of the Wii around 100 million console systems sold in 6 years and winner of 7th generation console wars.
Iconic series like Mario, Mario Kart, Zelda, Smash Brothers, etc will push Wii U sales towards the sky.
Wii U will have stronger support from third party developers and more time for third party developers to get used to the Wii U architecture to plan and design 8th generation games.
Wii U can easily sell over 16 million, closer to 20 million in its first year against aging 7th generation systems.
Wii U is priced at affordable price points to a mass market audience.
Wii U tablet controller looks impressive and combined with a good launch and first year line up of games its sales should do extremely well.

They already have consoles with high quality games and amazing graphics and the price is still out of range for the people that have not yet bought those.

No, they need something as a differentiator to attract a wider audience... or they can cause their current base to buy a new console version which makes them no money so they can play less games than they do on current console.

A year head start may not determine the outcome of the "console war" but it certainly is a huge advantage ...

Taking the Wii out of consideration for a moment, consider what would have happened between the PS3 and XBox 360 had the PS3 launched a year earlier (all else being equal). Essentially the mistakes that Sony made that Microsoft capitalized on (high initial price tag and difficulty to develop for) would have been addressed around the time the XBox 360 had launched, and the problems that Microsoft corrected before the PS3 launched (poor launch availability and the RROD) would have easily been capitalized on by Sony.

To put numbers to the effect, Sony would have probably had an 8 million unit lead and every year there would be 2 million PS3 systems sold at the expense of the XBox 360. The result would be (something like) the PS3 having sold 85 to 90 million units today while the XBox 360 would have only sold 45 to 50 million units.

While it is difficult to really predict these things, between the Wii U being (reasonably) affordable, having what looks like a pretty strong launch library, being (likely) a very high build quality that probably won't be prone to over-heating, and being conventional enough technology that it can probably be manufactured in high volumes, it does seem like the Wii U will have a fairly clean launch; and be free of any serious errors. In my opinion this puts massive pressure on Sony and Microsoft to not screw up because any mistake they make could put them very far behind.

I agreed that Sony is in a really bad situation, but I don't think MS is.

MS can easily afford a big loss with the next Xbox which means they can make a powerful system with a more advance Kinect, which could potentially mean the new xbox could become the next big system for the casuals (the Kinect may not have sold like the Wii but the casuals still loved that thing), there's also the fact that MS seems to be focusing more on media entertainment, something that the casuals also loved. If MS plays the cards right they could attract both the casuals and the hardcores.

Sony on the other hand is in big trouble. With all of their recent financial losses they can't afford a big loss in hardware without taking a major risk, that means no powerful machine this time. The problem here it's that Sony made themselves a staple by being "the most powerful console this gen" something that attracted a lot of people, so if they make a console that's just slightly more powerful than the Wii U then Sony could potentially lose all those people who buy the most powerful console (this may seemed weird, but I know a lot of people who bought a PS3 over the 360 because the PS3 is more powerful, not knowing anything about the Sony's first party games).

Team up and make the PlayStation X. That would for sure obliterate Nintendo.

Now really. Sony will cut PS3 price and release the new slim. Microsoft will probably announce the next Xbox days before the Wii U launch, with a release date much closer than what everyone expects.

so far we know the Wii U has the following features:

motion controls
HD graphics
core games and casual games
innovative tablet controller/gamepad
entertainment options
online service with social networking

basically what Sony/MS have to do is to trump what the Wii U is offering in terms of features, realistically for Sony this means Blu-Ray/Next Gen Blu-Ray and keeping hold of exclusives, for MS it's primarily about making sure Live remains the best Online service out there and again keeping hold of exclusives, the other both Sony and MS should consider is pricing, realistically they need to price their new consoles competitively with the Wii U, the U is launching at £250-£300 in the UK, so MS/Sony shouldn't be looking at a launch price of more than £350 for their machines or they lose a ton of market share, not to mention the PS3's early sales lagged behind because of it's £300+ price point, given that I would think a launch price for PS4/X720 of about £300 with perhaps like the U a more basic console for less.

mind their own business.... create their new innovation/gimmick (whatever you call it)
take some risk...
then maybe they can get the spotlight back...

Many people bought an X360 to watch it turn on the 3 red lights and left it in the garbage can.

What you do with your console doesn't matter, its and hardware unit sold. Oh, and Wii also sold more software that PS3 or 360.

You can try to spin that the way you want baby, Wii is this gen's king, although a very peculiar gen.

Meaningless ? In your wet dreams.