I know nothing for sure about the next gen.. same counts for everyone here of course

why will it be cheaper? if they want to compete powerwise, then they must make very heavy investments, a reason the Wii is cheap is because powerwise it's a beefed up GameCube so Nintendo didn't put much money in processor design and construction, so if the next Nintendo will again be cheap from the start, it can't be high-tech like the next PSX and Xbox.... I think..

 Well you said that it would be less powerful. LOL that is why. Also nintendos consoles are always cheap. The gamecube for example. It was more powerful than the ps2, but it was$100 cheaper, and still made a profit. They don't add things that aren't needed, and they use cheap products to make their hardware , and yet it's the most reliable(LOL). 

They should use all their profits this generation to buy up third party developers or naturally expand their first party development. They make some more mature games, especially RPGs. Who has the best exclusives typically wins the generation. They might as well gain a competitive advantage by have all the best IP.

yea... it's too early to say anything about next gen that makes much sense at this point I guess..

I think (at least i hope) Nintendo will produce a console much more powerful than Ps3 / 360. They aren't in the same situation as the Gamecube was, they are rolling in cash and can afford to put research in powerful cost efficient technology. By the end of this generation the 360 will be under $150, PS3 probably as well. Nintendo should be able to put out something with at least 2 times the power without going over $300.

The Wii is already a highly successful console so Nintendo has it's work cut out improving on it.

I hope Nintendo does away with Discs. Discs are easily the worst thing that's come to game consoles. They have slow read times, the disc drives are loud and a very prone to breaking down. Discs are also easily ruined by scratches etc. Cartridges offer faster access speeds and longevity on both the readers and the media.

The only thing that makes discs better is their price. Hopefully printing chips will become so cheap that one day all our consoles will go back to using cartridges (if they don't already use the download to flash memory method).

I wonder why people doubt if the next Ninty console will be as graphically able (if not more) than the PS4/Xbox720. In all honesty, the Playstation brand was the weakest the last two gens and then jumped ahead of the rest, what makes you think that Nintendo cant do the same thing?

Nintendo now has enough money that they can go to Nvidia or some other company and pay them loads of money to get back in line. The next generation's graphics will have a smaller leap than any others though as graphics will soon almost be maxed out or unnoticeable. So even if Ninty jumps to the PS3's level, and the PS4/Xbox720 jumps ahead again, they cant jump too far because there isnt that much more improvements in the graphics department unless you make the giant leap to virtual reality.

@Burshe: Agreed to some extent. I can't see Nintendo paying extra money for a graphics chip. That's not going to happen. They know what they can get away with now and graphics won't be a main draw on their new system.

My specs for the next Wii thing ma bob would be pretty simplistic.

Cpu: Dual Core, Power PC 2ghz
GPU: Something based on Radeon 3800
Ram: 1GB
Flash Memory: 128GB-256GB (this is where Nintendo will splurge a bit)
Backwards compatibility with the Wii (all parts included)

At the same time though, it really doesn't matter what we "guess" as we won't see it for at least another 3+ more years.