Technology moves quickly and I'm a supporter of shorter lifecycles. I also don't mind consoles going in the direction of PC's, meaning, cross-gen games are fine with me. (Esspecially at the start of a gen) You want the superior graphics / FR? Get the new console, don't care, stick with the old ones.

5 years is fine by me,

New Nintendo: Holiday 2017
New Sony / Microsoft: Holiday 2018

As for what will happen? I'm expecting 2019 for Sony. I have no clue for Nintendo or Microsoft as they might want to launch early.

5 years but they should make them backwards compatible, they use x86 now

Six years is the sweet spot.

Max 6 years.

More 6 years for XB1 and PS4. About 2 for wiiu.

4 more years! for sony and ms, for nintendo, i dont realy care if the wii u lasts 2 or 5 more years, nintendo isnt holding back gaming.

I'd like 6 years for all 3 consoles but Wii U will only last 4 years.

Short generations are the way to go, the PS4/XB1 should have been released around 2011 - 2012 with similar specs as the ones they had in late 2013.

Ideally we would get new consoles from MS and Sony which are PS 4.5 and XB 1.5 (well maybe Xbox one 2.0) ... which means upgrading would be like getting a new computer/tablet/phone, all your software would still work and the OS for the new machine would be pretty much up upgraded version of what was on the old one, but behind you would have some upgraded CPU (more cores or faster cores) GPU and faster memory! games could be released with performance profiles for the new and old machine (by example a game could be locked at 30fps on the PS4 and run at a smooth 60fps on the PS 4.5 maybe with better lighting effects and textures... just like on PC, but it would be transparent... old games would run with a performance profile for the original PS4, those that have frame rate drops or their frame rate is unlocked would probably run better on the new machines).

That would be the ideal situation, where consoles become real platforms and most games are backward compatible by default (backward compatibility is never a 100% thing, but if the underlying architecture is made with this in mind... it can be great).

5

It will probably be short like PS2's gen unless we get PS4k/X1 Elite-fully backwards compatible stop gap systems which can deliver higher performance  but not a generational leap (ala new 3DS)

I say this because the way things are going both consoles could be 199 by fall 2017, they're both far more cost efficient then PS3/360. Spec wise they don't have as much to offer as PS3/360 and I expect they will be quite exhausted before long. Unified architecture and a demand for high performance will probably make room for someone to offer a new powerful console around 2018 and steal that core market wanting to play the next Elderscrolls and like as they are intended graphically versus what they could fit on the PS4. Microsoft underperforming this gen will make them eager to take hold of it and they'll force sonys hand. I'm personally hoping that Nintendo beats them both to it a delivers a truly generation leap in 2017 (8TBGPU, 14nm silicon, overclocked i7CPU equivalent CPU).

5 years is good.. I think the PS5 and XBox Two/Next/Infinity will be more just upgrades since they went with x86 architecture.

The new consoles can be 4k (sorry it wont be 8k, considering 1080p is just hitting when 4k TVs have been on sale a few years now).

Push it to 16GB of RAM.. 3TB HD's.. IF VR really does take off.. Both would be VR friendly.. More advanced cameras for them both..(PS Eye, Kinect etc).

Don't see them as big shifts.. just upgrades.. Totally backwards compatible..