I was thinking, even the Wii, which is the weakest console hardware-wise in comparison to the 360 and PS3, surpasses the Xbox, which was the most powerful console of last-gen.

By next generation, costs to develop new consoles will go down, which is what makes current console be able to get a price-drop.

This would mean that next-gen consoles could be as or more powerful than consoles today (PS3 and 360) with a cost of under 200 dollars, for example.

Now, the case with Nintendo is that they have faced unimaginable success with the Wii without having the strongest hardware BUT still stronger than anything last Gen. So, do you believe Nintendo will, next gen, have a console atleast AS powerful aswhat the current PS3 ad 360 deliver?

Ofcourse the PS4 and the 720 will be facing eachother in a battle of hardware, afterall, they have started this war this gen and I don't see it stopping til` one of the console makers drops out of the competition, but do you think this will be a 3-way competition?

In my opinion, Nintendo knows it has great success and won't increase it's next gen console cost by much more than what the Wii is now, 250 dollars, and will most likely be including a game with the console first-hand. But I think it will outperform current-gen HD consoles and be close to general "Nintendo price-range" because of the simple fact that Nintendo consoles don't have a DVD reader or CD reader, and as technology evolves, cheaper and more powerful "chips" and video cards will develop and this can be to an advantage to all console makers.

The question is, will Nintendo atleast MATCH what the current HD consoles deliver, hardware-wise, or will it just increase a bit from the current Wii? Will Sony and MS change their strategy and decrease hardware performance to reduce costs in their future consoles? Will the HD war exist next gen?

NOTE: Not mentioning anything along the lines of motion controlling, that's something different.

Anyways, give your opinions!

Yes, why in the world would they not?

The next Nintendo console, I believe will be weaker then the ps3 though.

Why do you think that?

i think nintendo should try and get a balance between affordabillity, and being close enough to the competition to get the multiplats

You guys do know why Nintendo consoles are cheap right? Despite the gamecube being more powerful than the PS2 it was cheaper because it didn't have the expensive DVD drive, and the hardware was easier to produce. Now the Wii probably could have been even more powerful and still made a profit, but that wouldn't make much sense if Nintendo loss this generation. They were taking a risk, and they new the more money per console they made the better, because there were big chances the Wii could have failed. Next Generation, unless they take another risk like this they will probably make a console on par or above the competition just like they did with the Snes, N64, and Gamecube. They will probably still make a profit too because they make strictly consoles, and don't waste money on expensive add ons, and they use fairly cheap hardware. So there is no reason, unless they risk/innovate again that the next console will be as far behind its competition in the way the Wii, or the Nes have.

Even if they did do the same thing again, why would it be weaker than the PS3? The Wii is significantly more poweful than the original xbox/Gamecube so why would the next console be weaker?

I think the next nintendo console will be more powerful than the ps3, maybe the same gap between the wii and the xbox right now. the ps4 and nextbox will be more powerful, but I think they will be cheaper so they can compete and not lose any money.

Sony over did it this gen in terms of hardware. Which makes me think the next Nintendo console won't be as powerful as the ps3. The ps3 is compatible with all kinds of hardware...

depends how big the increase in graphics is next gen