Sony will have little or no variation in its standing, which means it might win by default.
Nintendo will continue to fall from grace, a fall that started back with N64 vs PS1 and people are only now catching on to it in great enough numbers to matter. I stuck through up until the Wii U. I got almost no use out of my Wii, and what little I did was underwhelming. Skyward Sword, Other M, and Metroid Prime 3. All disappointing compared to the best or even the middling titles in their respective series. Only solid fun I had with it was RE4 port, and Super Paper Mario. Which wasn't half the game Thousand Year Door was.
I viewed the Wii like Nintendo's version of when a singer puts out an all Cover/Holiday album totally out of character with their most popular albums. I figured that it was a novelty, and had some clear success with some portions of consumers not normally interested in their work, but they would surely move on to make more of the stuff people are looking for.
Nope. They thought to capitalize on a different gimmick and people don't seem to be buying it anymore. Every time I see a preview of a new Wii U title the selling point seems to be that every game can be played with the hand screen, with the wii remote/nunchuck, with a classic controller, or played entirely on the hand screen.
Why? Who needs that many different, and somewhat conflicting control schemes? Your selling point is that you have to look at 2 screens, that are drastically different sizes and not right near each other like on the DS, and yet you prioritize making games that can be played WITHOUT your gimmick controller? Or without your TV?
You already have a fucking handheld console, called the 3DS, which I and a surprisingly large percent of users, never turn the 3D on. Mine also likes to randomly crash while playing 3DS games. Its almost as bad as unpatched AssCreed 1 with the freezes.
The sad thing is that even now when they have taken their first financial loss in a long long time, they won't turn that ship around any time soon. They could make the best new console since the SNES appealing to all, and blowing out minds with its specs, thus attracting every 3rd party developer out there (for more than gimmicky shovelware) and put to rest the rise of the cell phone/tablet as a lead gaming device.
They could, but NOT competing, and releasing iterations of their key franchises every so often, worked out so well for them these last several years so meh. That is their approach. "meh"
Once again their handheld will see them through, though Sony's HEAVY pimping out of the Vita-PS4 remote play might rock the boat.
Microsoft seems to have caught what Gary Busey has, which is both tragic and entertaining. (I know what he has, and that it isn't contagious btw)
They will only succeed by cramming their product so far down our throats and by using the most cutthroat methods such as rampant bribery for exclusives that you will essentially be bullied and blackmailed into submitting to whatever they deem you should. You will pay for access to content, you will own nothing, and if you have a problem such as lacking an internet connection you can fuck off.
So more or less business as usual at Microsoft.
