Wii U is almost out but we haven't seen PS4 and 720. It kinda makes me think that Wii U is releasing too early and will go the way of the Dreamcast when it released before PS2/GCN/Xbox.

What do you guys think?

It makes sense, with wii sales and 3rd party support drying up they saw no pointing in wasting time in releasing their next console, whilst Sony and MS are still selling fairly strong and have no reason to launch so early.

Initial sales will be good due to the amount of nintendo fans but come the release of the next consoles there is potential for such a dreamcast situation to occur.

If I ran MS or Sony I'd reveal my next gen console around the time the WiiU launches - or at least hint something - to steal some of the thunder and make people think twice before getting the WiiU...

I guess they are trying a different approach. By letting their old consoles compete with the Wii U (and with seemingly similar graphics capabilities) they try to make it appear as if the Wii U has no thunder. And as we can see Sony is trying extra hard with this PS3/Vita combo.

A more important factor is though that their current consoles bring profits that they don't want to cut through a premature next-gen announcement. Again, that especially goes for Sony.

This. Money talks.

First off, Sega's financial problems and the destruction of their brand from previous system releases killed the Dreamcast, releasing before the PS2 probably was the only thing that the Dreamcast really had going for it.

With that said, when the previous generation market leader launches their system a year (or more) before a system it has typically seen abysmal sales; and when a strong and healthy company has launched a system a year (or more) before their competition it has typically resulted in increased sales for them. Look at how Sony gained the advantage on the N64 by releasing the Playstation before the N64, how Sony crushed the XBox and Gamecube by releasing the PS2 before either system, or how Microsoft saw the XBox 360 sell to (over) 3 times the sales level of the XBox by launching before the PS3. You can add to this list most of the market leading handled systems being that Nintendo launched ahead of or along side all of their competition, and the only time a system has even sold well was when it launched at (roughly) the same time.

Essentially, several generations of handheld and console systems would indicate that Sony and Microsoft not releasing their systems along side or ahead of the Wii U is setting them up to see their sales decline by 40% to 60%, so why aren't you asking whether they're making a mistake?

The WiiU launched too late if anything - Wii sales would have been far better last year if Nintendo hadn't announced the thing so early

uhh no its not launching to early its launching at the right time as its following the normal life cycle of a console! 5-6 years is normal just do some research and see how it was before this gen!

I think the part in bold is correct. They just see WiiU as the same power as PS3 and 360. When they announce PS4 and 720, they will do so in a way that makes Wii U irrelevant.

Since when is launching first a downside? Look at the previous generations, it was always a good move.
It still is.
Sega's DC faillure had nothing to do with launching first. Crappy management was the DC's downfall.

It's very unlikely the other consoles will have a big hardware advantage - Not unless the others are going to be mini-pc's sold at a big loss.