I'm a 'get all the consoles' kind of guy, have been since N64/PS1 era, and I plan on doing the same in the future. That said, there is a very, VERY important order and heirarchy in play.

This generation, I saw myself starting off hating Xbox, Loving PS3, and just falling head over heels for the Wii. Then, after about 2 years of neglect, I stopped caring about the PS3's lack of games, I realized that Nintendo had slowed right down on the quality releases, and Xbox was getting better and better, to the point where in 2009/2010, it was a very close three way tie, with Sony just barely coming out on top.

Now that the generation is over, the Playstation 3 is the only system I still play. My Xbox makes so much noise and grinds so much I'm scared to use it, I refuse to pay for Xbox Live when PSN and Steam are free, and I realize that the only exclusives for the system I care about are Gears of War and maybe Fable. I almost never play that system. The Wii isn't doing any better, since the only games I've gotten on the system since 2010 were Donkey Kong Country Returns and Zelda: Skyward Sword. The Virtual Console is a dead zone, now that I've had everything I want and have since 2008.

But the PS3...I keep getting games for it. I got a free year of PS+ and it's greatly improved my scope of games. I'd never have played Borderlands or Borderlands 2 if not for PS+. I can share downloads with my friend (who is now paying for my PS+ in the future as thanks for my generosity), The PS3 is the only system that looks to have a good future of exclusives still (God of War, The Last of Us, and maybe even The Last Guardian, Final Fantasy vsXIII and Agent!), not to mention the Vita cross compatibility. I use my PS3 as a blu ray player (I have over 100 blu rays and 500 DVD's), all of my friends have switched to PS3, and I even recently got a bluetooth headset to use with the system.

PS3 has always impressed me, even in the years when Sony wasn't releasing any good exclusives thanks to its multimedia capabilities, but Wii has fallen far from my graces (my brother even threw his out, an act that kinda bothered me since he didn't give me his wiimotes or spare parts), and while the Xbox had a period where I loved it almost as much as my PS3 from 2009-2011, it has since lost all reason for existing in my entertainment system.

With all that said, and factoring current rumors of what the next gen will be like between Nextbox and PS4, my order if importance, based on loyalty, history, and price:

1 - PS4 (by a wide margin.)
2 - WiiU (Nintendo may have flopped with the Wii in my eyes, but 25 years of love is a lot to undo)
3 - Nextbox (No Used games? No purchase. Also, hardware reliability is a huge factor)

I'd have gotten a WiiU already if not for the inevitable PS4 announcement in a few days. And, you know, the Rayman delay. Not happy about that, leaves me with ONE game on the system I want/need. that will change in the following year.

As I said in my "primary console" thread:

I have been Nintendo + Sony since 1996 owning all their home consoles and all of Nintendo's HH's.

I have decided not to buy a Wii U because the 3DS is good enough for Nintendo games. Normally, I mainly play Nintendo's home systems most and ignore their HH's besides for 2 or 3 games. 3DS is a great System and will now be my only Nintendo system this Gen.

I will "switch" from Nintendo to either Sony or Microsoft depending on what direction they go.

I won't probably change from Xbox to PS or Nintendo unless MS really screws up things next gen.

Reasons why:

- I would have much to lose if i'd ever did that (all my friends, downloadables, achieves are associated to that one account)
- My favorite games series are on the Xbox aswell (such as Dark Souls, Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Blazblue, The Witcher, Naruto Storm, Suda 51 games, Platinum Games games, etc)
- Sony's absorbing quite some losses from theirs business and lost major ground in the biggest markets, as much as i could sympathise with them, i'm not prepared to invest in any of their products without knowing how sucessefull it would turn out to be. As for Nintendo, I'll keep using their handhelds as ever. :)

Boy. So far this poll is very telling about the demographic of this site. Must be frustrating being an Xbox fan here.

PS1, PS2, PS3 and Vita were the way here (after Sega) and I will stick to that. My next gen already started with Sony (PS Vita) and I will grab a PS4 as home console. But I'm loooking for a Wii U too, to play SSBros and Metroid. I will wait for price cuts on the U and, after buying the PS4, I will try to get one.

exactly.  Plus I don't want to add a Live bill on top of my gaming expenses.

I'm not loyal to any of these companies and I usually only need 1 console per generation.
That said PS+ really turned out to be an amazing service for me, so I'm inclined to go with Sony for the next gen again.

Yes I'm switching from Xbox to PS4. Why? Because I'm tired of paying for Live when I only care about SP games and I also think MS botched the exclusives this gen. They had some promise with Alan Wake but after that it was all Halo and Forza.

Sony has better exclusives.

Staying with Sony for the console hands down but also seriously considering a 3ds. You can't deny the awesome support it's getting from 3rd party.

I don't like how MS has treated Remedy, Rare and a bunch of Japanese studios so I have no reason to consider changing sides.