It is Nintendos normal six year cycle for consoles. Microsoft and Sony made big loss with their consoles and want to stretch this cycle to gain a bit more profit now.

They are releasing on schedule... following the 5-to-6-year console life cycle.

The HD twins both shot for 5+ year life cycles and with already being HD, they need clear differentiator to make their next offering successful. If they can't come up with some successful game changer innovation in the video game experience, they wont be very successful in beating their own consoles, let alone Nintendo's new one.

There is also the issue of cost per performance. Sony can't be an idiot and expect to be successful with a $600 launch price. The Xbox-Next will clearly release with a XBL 2-year subscription subsidized price plan. Lastly, no matter how good the hardware, it wont be worth anything until they have truly stand-out compelling hardware to show for it.

What high-end game on PC can't be played on current consoles with marginal differences that don't effect overall quality/value of game?

lol the way of the dreamcast? Nintendo is too powerful for that.

I guess you're right. We shall see.

It's really strange. But it makes sense too, simply because Nintendo will have at least a full year alone until Xbox 720 (or even the PS4) arrive. That should help getting support from third parties, because the installed base will be reasonable when the Xbox 720 (or PS4) is released.

Nintendo will be successful, they usually are, but I don't think they'll command the lead the way they did with the original Wii.

hahaha, Nintendo made too much money out of the last gen to be like the dreamcast. 

Nintendo has first party characters, what did sega have?  Off the top of my head, Sonic.  Can't even think of anyone that's close to a Link, or Star Fox, or Samus, or Kirby, or yoshi and so on.

And, what really scares me about sony and microsoft being so quiet about their system is that there may not be a system out there.  Right now, we've hit the precipice of graphic power, or at least where you would notice.  So how far will Sony take things in terms of graphical power that Nintendo cannot follow? 

I'm afriand Sony and microsoft don't have anything.  They need to offer something innovative after the Wii U comes out.  And really, why would Sony and Microsoft foresake their current 63+ million install base now?  Not a good idea to have something like the Vita taking up store shelves.  And if ps3 and 360 were any indication, itll be the same way. 

I kind of disagree.  Microsoft has to be the one a bit on edge going into next generation.  The Xbox 360 launched a full year ahead of the other consoles and yet had by far the lowest sales rate.  Now, imagine if the 360 had launched at the same time or even a year later?  It would be trailing the other two by several million units.  That sales rate just isn't very good, especially considering the PS3's horrible launch.

I think it's more important for Microsoft to beat the PS4 to market by at least six months.

Microsoft and Sony will both know by the time they enter the next gen if the Wii U has managed to reproduce the Wii's viral sales with the casual market.  That might shape how aggressive they are with marketing, and who they "go after".  If the Wii U doesn't go viral, then there will be plenty of room on the console market for all three companies.  

Sega shot themself in the foot with silly add ons like the Sega CD and the 32x. The Saturn also continued to leak money for Sega so the Dreamcast never really stood a chance. So releasing their console first had nothing to do with the Dreamcast failure.

After a strong start for the Wii sales have now dried up and the Wii U needs to be released now and releasing first can only be a good thing to get a head start on sales.

Sony had stated on the PS3 release that it would have a longer life span than the average games console, so I can see them being last to release their machine in the next gen. However I feel the gaming public are ready for a change now and many will adopt a Wii U simply because people will want the newest gaming machine.

PS4 with a 4k tv: $26,000

NextBox with the new enhanced Kinect 2: $600

Wii U: $300

Watching to see who is going to win the next gen in this terrible economy: priceless

There's some things you can't buy with money, but for pointing out the obvious there's mastercard commercial jokes.