The next generation, or 8th generation will start, in 2011 at the earliest.  Both MS and Sony are losing way too much off their consoles to simply just end it now.  They have to wait out awhile in hope of profits.

Nintendo on the other hand probably was going to end at that time anyways.  I wouldn't see them going much longer than 2011 with the Wii.

What Nintendo could do though is once Wii gets a large and secure lead quickly immediately have another console ready and release it and this would totally disrupt the competition especially if it not only pushes motion sensing and other innovations but hardware as well.  If Nintendo controls this generation then it's very possible that they'll control the next one as well.

But 2011 is where I see the change happen as that's when I see Wii having the controlling lead to make such a change.

I think it is really a matter of perspective and experience ...

I have spent years dealing with 3D graphics in games, school and work so I've gotten to a point where I can look at (almost) any image and tell you what techniques were used to generate the image. Most people are not that aware of how things look so they see an XBox 360 game and don't see anything that looks dramatically different to an XBox game and so the "Graphics look the same."

I'll try to put this another way ...

Look at these two screenshots:

Side by side the PS3 version looks obviously better ...

But for the average person who walks into a Walmart and Sees a PS3 display and goes home to play on their Wii/PS2 (or whatever) they are going to say that the PS3 version looked nicer but wasn't that much different than their Wii/PS2 version -> or that the "PS3 version didn't look any better than the PS2 version"

Aslong as the Wii keeps selling,we wont see the "next gen" Nintendo for awhile.

As the past would tell you,Nintendo kept the Game Boy Color around longer than expected because it was selling so well. Even tho the new and improved Game Boy Advanced was finalized and ready to go for years b4 it came out..i mean the GBA came out in 2001 for crying out loud..

i was not talking this generation. i was talking NEXT generation.

the ps4 the xbox whatever, and the wii2

of the 3 consoles(if their are 3) ONLY Nintendo's product is going to be able to show the largest graphical improvement vs their last product (the wii)

We go to combine a thing… INSIDE OF TWO YEARS ALL ARE FORBIDDEN OF POST REGARDING THE NEXT GENERATION! This finished to leave and already it has people speaking of the next one… This is problem of SONY, NINTENDO and MICROSOFT.

It is pure loss of time to be today, arguing on a generation that must come at least in 2010… E WE DO NOT HAVE THE LESSER IDEA OF WHAT THE “THREE” ARE CONSPIRING FOR ITS CONSOLES!

What the hell could they even do with it? Make a cheaper PS3 and call it the PS4, TA DA!! Either that or give it a full fledged motion sensing controller. I bet itll revolutionize gaming.

I think his point is that MS and Sony are showing that you can't attain mass market sales figures without a mass market price.  Their next systems will have to be cheaper than their current ones leading to less of a jump in performance.  At least that is the point I would make.  Moore's Law regarding computing power per dollar would roughly show why this is the case (admittedly it's not perfect but good enough).  The PS3 launched 6 years after the PS2 at twice the price which would equate into the PS3 being 32 times the power of the PS2 (2*2^4).  Especially with Kutaragi gone Sony must realize their next system will have to be $300 with a smaller initial loss.  That being the case the PS4 will be 4 times as powerful as the PS3 (0.4*2^3.333).  For MS the calculations turn out a 360 that is almost 9 times as powerful as the Xbox and assuming 5 years and a more reasonable $300 price,  the next Xbox would be 6 times as powerful as the 360. 

Nintendo is much harder to calculate since per unit profit, and major costs like the Wiimote and online interface are unknown.  The Wiimote is evidently a very expensive addition, seeing as they took at least 3 years to develop and cost $60 alone.  I think had Nintendo sold the Wii without the motion controls, the online channels, Wii Sports, flash memory, and with a similar profit margin (ie as simply a more powerful GameCube and I'm assuming Nintendo increased its per unit profit on the Wii) they could have sold it for under $100.  That would result in a Wii that is 4-5 times more powerful than the GameCube.  Not the 1.5-2 times frequently asserted but more in line I think with the Wiis 3-4 fold increase in transistor count*frequency and memory capability over the GameCube (not a perfect measurement of power I know).  At any rate, 5 years from now Nintendo could release a $250 Super Wii without a game which would equate to a system that is 12-15 times more powerful than the Wii depending on how other internals change.

So lenardo's point, while not 100% certain, is definitely reasonable.  This generations we have seen the following improvements (Sony/MS/Ninty) 32/9/4, next gen it will likely be 4/6/12-15.  Next generation then Nintendo would show the biggest improvement in capability.  Of course Sony and MS can do whatever they want, Sony could go crazy and decide the PS3 is indeed too cheap as Kutaragi claimed.  They could release a $1000 system next generation which would allow them to match the power increase that Nintendo's system will have.  It wouldn't sell but that's another issue.  Whatever happens, given Nintendo's low price and the fact that much of that price is absorbed by abnormally high non-graphical power features compared with MS/Sony's excessive per-unit loss and price it means that it is a safe bet that Nintendo's next system will show a much bigger bounce in power than MS/Sony's.