The 8th generation war will be waged in Europe.
Sony will be too busy defending it's "home" turf to be able to do anything about NA. Nintendo already took JP in part because of the shift towards handhelds. I just don't see consoles having a meaningful representation in JP enough to justify Sony investing there heavily.

I'm really curious as to MS' strategy for JP though. They could very well expand in Latin America and Europe with the money they would save from not being in JP. Brazil and China comes to mind.

You do realize that the US is the biggest market for console gaming and has been going all the way back to the Atari days, don't you?  It's been like that a long time before "Halo" and "COD" burst onto the scene.  Although Europe has caught up over the past decade and is now roughly on par with the US in terms of number of consoles sold over the past 2 gens, the US has routinely at least doubled Japan's console sales for most platforms.

US gamers don't need a variety of genres?  Please... if Europe and Japan dominated the market all we would get are linear action and role playing games, racing sims, fighting games, soccer (futbol) games and the occasional odd / wacky game coming out of Japan like Katamari Damacy.

It's a fresh start for all consoles next-gen. Of course their current sales in each region will have influence on their successors, there are many other factors such as price, release date, advertising and launch line-up which will determine which console will win in which territory. America is the most likely to switch. In the span of 2 generations it went from Sony focused, to Nintendo, to Microsoft. If Sony wants America and they do everything in their power to successfully launch PS4, it has high chance to be the lead platform there.

You're wrong. Sony won't be defending anything in Japan. All their successful Japanese games are 3rd party. Sony has to do little effort for the PS4 to be successful in Japan, and there is a small amount of consoles to be sold there. America is a much bigger market therefore Sony will focus much more on that.

The proof of that is where they are announcing the PS4.....IN NEW YORK! Also look at the EDGE rumor, they mention they are launching in US + Japan this year, and Europe in 2014. There is a truckload of evidence stacked against your comment. 

See how i put home under "quotations". That meant Europe. Sony's only "guaranteed territory.

That doesn't make sense. First of all, Sony's home territory is Japan. Second of all, Europe isnt' a guaranteed win next-gen for Sony.
Current sales in Europe are about about 28million for PS3 and 22million for Xbox 360.

The point is that sales between PS3 and 360 aren't that far off in Europe.They are very very close and next-gen it starts a clean slate. it could go to either one. It all depends on how much of a focus they put on it.

they need a series like halo or gears which mostly americans like.

Then prepare to get banned if you put that on your sig. Year ago there were some M$ fans who did the something similar and got banned 5 or 10 days for it. If the Sony fans get away with it then the the Ninty/M$ should too. Just saying.

I think the main focus for Sony should be to release the PS4 at a lower price to the Nextbox and advertise the hell out of the fact that you can play online for free (Assuming that Microsoft will still continue to charge for it).

I don't know if it's exactly the same as the U.S. But here in the U.K. it seems to be that the Xbox was more succesful because it was the cheaper console to play "next gen" games on. Then when COD took off, the majority where playing on the Xbox, so many others went with the 360 so they could play with their friends. Hence it's become the "trendy" console.

At which point there seemed to be a lot of apathy about the PS3. Because even if they where missing out on exclusives, they were able to play the majority of the games they wanted to play on their XBox and they could play it with all their friends. The impression I get from most people is that "Well the grass may be green on the other side... but it's still green enough here, so why go through the effort of moving".

However once the new consoles come out and people are forced to choose a side again (if they want to play the latest games) then I don't think brand loyalty will win out over price. Especially in the current economic climate. Again this is just based on my impressions I've gathered from the U.K but it sounds like the U.S. could be quite similar.

Edit: This is all under the assumption that the third party's don't support Nintendo again. (If they do then I think things could become a bit more complex).

I look at your avatar and DREAM about playing Fallout 4 someday...