This'll give Nintendo a visible target for the Summer shows, and several months to prepare.

Perfect timing really.

Juuuuuust as long as its not stupidly priced. If its looking to be another 599 thing then Sony can suck my dick. Kaz can play with the balls.

Seriously though, if they show it off and have a WW release schedule for say, early November with a steady stream of games in the first 3 Months. Man, thats gonna be crazy.

Exactly! If Sony/MS announce date/price before E3, Nintendo will have some time to prepare the strike back... I think they will try to repeat the 3DS/Vita story by launching killing autemn lineup and maybe slashing the price of WiiU for 50-80 USD some weeks before opponent's launch...

afaik Sony's earnings release is on the 7th of feb

Another PS3 redesign maybe?

That wont be happening not unless Nintendo want to lose millions.

"If you think Nintendo's numbers are bad, wait until you see ours!"
-Kaz Hirai CEO

On a serious note though, I doubt Nintendo's numbers would have been the catalyst for this presentation.

Nice to see some sense in here. As fun as it is to try and stoke fanboy wars and proclaim that Sony are getting ready to hit Nintendo in the nuts, Sony are far more likely doing this because it will benefit themselves in the eyes of their investors. It's far more important to appease their investors with an exciting new product, than it is to piss on Nintendo's chips, so to speak. Nintendo have already began to address their faithful audience with their Direct. They have four titles (Game & Wario, Wii Fit U, Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3) that should be announced shortly for Quarter 2 releases, and Quarters 3 and 4 of this year could easily see a Zelda remake, Mario Kart and 3D Mario. Those are big games Sony cannot compete with while launching their new system. Every bit of Sony's energy this year needs to be focused on boosting Vita and successfully launching the PS4--they don't have the resources, or the brand strength, that they did 12 or 13 years ago, to wreck a competitors sales by announcing another PlayStation. Like it or not, the world has changed.

This announcement is far more about Sony's problems than Nintendo's problems. Vita is struggling in every major market. PS3, while still selling well, is most definitely declining. It makes more business sense to announce PS4 now--long before PS3 is circling the drain--than it does to wait. This shows Sony's investors that Sony have long-term plans to offset declines and restore growth in their home console business. Given the difficulties both Nintendo and Sony face, in the near term at least, both companies will be far more concerned about issuing announcements to address their own problems, than attempting to aggravate the problems competitors face.

EDIT: That being said, it's good timing and hopefully the sign of a good strategy of gradually releasing information about the new console. Sony have to get the concept, the software, the services, the launch dates, the pricing, the hardware configuration, across to the market successfully before launch. By beginning the release of information soon, and not shouting everything out during the din of E3, Sony will more effectively get their information across.

I've said maybe! ;)

I doubt it.