Saw this over on NeoGaf: 

IMO the Wii U won't reach 30 million, more likely 20, or less. 85 mill PS4's? Hard to say. It depends how badly people want to upgrade or if they are more bothered about phones and tablets, but I would say 70+ mill. As for the next-box if that goes down the route of a windows media centre that plays games, I'd say in the region of 50 mill give or take ~10 as no one likes a jack of all trades.

Huh, numbers actually seem reasonable this time around... not exactly likely or what I think it could happen, but reasonable given what we know. But whether next gen will be the last remains to be seen.

So this confirms a few things:

• The Nextbox and PS4 will be much more expensive than the Wii U.
• The Wii U will outsell the Nextbox and PS4.
• The next console generation will not be the last.

Yep. Needs to be in the OP. 

i expect PS4 to take first, nextbox to take second, and Wiiu to take 3rd at about 65m.

But is he right being wrong? If yes, how is he wrong but states he is right?

Pachter is a character and a half. He has predicted Nintendo's doom many times, over many years over., lol. I do think there will be a drop in overall consoles sales. Even developers have already stated they will making less triple A titles for the gen of consoles.

reminds me of the thread we had once with like 20 different predictions of analysts and almost everyone totally wrong for minimum 2 of the 3 consoles. they seem to predict just out of their ass, now they don't even wait to see the product or don't even want to know the full specs or whatever to predict lifetime sales of it

30-50m for the Wii U sounds about right; games like Mario Kart, Smash Bros, and HD Zelda will push consoles to core and casual alike, and once the price drops it will be an attractive buy for parents shopping for their kid's birthday/Christmas present.