Agreed, but not really possible. The casuals tend to flock to whatever is popular then whatever is good as quality isn't a prequesite for a casual. Therefore to get the casuals back, Nintendo would have to gain the "in" status once again, which is very, very hard as they are now up against google, apple and the rest of the phone/tablet crowd. 

Well, I have put it into my sig.

what if 720 launches first.

Yes something but to say a lot went wrong is nothing short of ignorant, the ps2 had such a massive lead on the market that it was going to do nothing but lose market share. First you have to look why they had that market share to begin with Nintendo already had a bad relation with third parties, Sega was dying and Microsoft only just join the console race, more to the point Microsoft was the first company to actually go head to head with Sony.

You honestly believe GT is the only series to sell hardware?

lol i really have no idea what he/she is talking about there are tons of system sellers on ps3 sure there not exculsive like they were in ps2 era but thats only cause sony let microsoft in the market by getting to cocky and making the ps3 way to expensive.

They tried to be the 'in' console with the Wii U but they are confusing people as to who they are truly up against.No casual will want a Wii U when they could just buy a tablet. Nintendos graphics are also current gen, so thats not going to impress casuals without a gimmick. They have left onlookers confused. Are they up against Sony? Microsoft? Apple? They havent made that clear distinction and their lineup leaves a lot to the imagination. Playing the "core" console is playing right into Sony and Microsofts hands. When it comes to the core audience they have already been spoken for. Mark my words, if the PS4 and 720 are reasonably priced, the Wii U is fucked outside of Japan. Whether the Wii won or not they are not the core console of choice which is generally predicted by adequate third party support. 

This is a good read about Nintendos issues with the core audiene, check it out:

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1689492/wii_u_nintendo_shouldnt_compete_with_sony_microsoft_analyst.html

I don't see Japan being that important next generation with the reason being that it's an afterthought to Western third parties.  So basically it won't give Nintendo any real clout with them compared to Microsoft or Sony.  With that being said I'm sure some people would argue that Japanese third parties could still rally behind Wii U but I don't even see that happening either and i'll explain why. 

Basically it's games like Call of Duty that decide where the bulk of AAA and AA third party games go since they are so popular with Western audiences and force the smaller players to follow or risk having a very small potential audience for their games.  This also includes Japanese third parties since many rely on Western sales for a significant portion of their AAA and AA sales (which some exceptions but they are usually in genres that have no significant impact in the West).

Of course Nintendo has some pretty massive games but they're in genres that third parties don't typically do well in.  So they basically have no real impact on third party AAA and AA game development.  So in order for the Wii U to get a lot of third party support it will have to attact a large share of the Call of Duty audience into using the Wii U as their primary system.  This past holiday has shown that will be a major challenge for them since they weren't able to do it in significant numbers even without any next generation competition.

If those gamers do move to 720/PS4 in significant numbers it could be disasterous for Wii U in another way as well.  Basically the competition between these games means they'll all be looking for any advantage they can get.  So in trying to trump each other in graphics, physics, AI, etc it could lead to games with specs that take them out of the realm of being an easy port to Wii U to one where significant changes have to be made to the Wii U version.  If that happens the Wii U would be the odd man out again and basically find itself in the position Wii was in this past generation for such games.

So that just leaves only a few ways for the Wii U to dominate.  The first is catching lightning in a bottle again and becoming massive with casuals like the Wii was (which will be even harder this time around with the ever increasing competition for them from Apple and others).  The second is if one of their first/second parties makes a game in a genre like FPS that becomes massive on the scale of 10-20+ million and causes a major shift of core gamers to the console.  If you believe that either one or even both of those are going to happen then the Wii U does have a chance of dominating otherwise the discussion becomes just how poor third party support will be for it.

Not so sure. EU looks pretty bad for Nintendo (it always was) and is a region where Fifa and Gran Turismo are system sellers. Nintendo doesn't have a racing sim (and this type of game demands raw power) and that is a huge problem. Japan is Ninty's territory, but it's the smaller region anyway, 360 competed well without any sales from there. And maybe there can be a problems, since Metal Gear and other big franchises may not come to Wii U at all.

I think that your prediction miss one important point: online game has grown massively this gen. And Nintendo Network is really lagging behind. Sony/MS gamers already have their friends/achievements/trophies and may just stay with their current brand to keep that. And if the next gen CODs come, at leats for 1 or 2 years, with PS3/Orbis and 360/720 versions with cross-play between the next and current gen versions (of the same company, like PS3 players together with Orbis ones), that can kill Wii U legs in NA and EU.

But, even with that, the price will be the key factor. If the MS/Sony consoles come with prices higher that US$400 at launch they are done and Nintendo will win easily. The most important factor in consoles is the price, followed by the games.

I realize that this is just a prediction and could easily be wrong so don't shoot me!

@People saying that Sony could easily get back on top: How so? Your prediction is just as good as mine but I don't see it. The PS/PS2 were the obvious choices due to the massive exclusive 3rd party support. While the N64/GC/XB were getting a solid game every couple of months, the PS/PS2 got a couple good games a month. This was Sony's huge advantage. Microsoft took those exclusives and made them go multi-platform. Sony relied and still relies a ton on 3rd parties. I don't think Sony will ever dominate like that again. They might be #1 but not dominate.

You guys are right about online. Nintendo does lag behind in that area which could definitely be a huge factor. I think we have reached the point where graphics and such won't matter as much as before. Sony & Microsoft will likely release something new to get the casual market. This will also hurt Sony as IMO they don't have much appeal when it comes to the casuals without the massive exclusive 3rd party support.