Whew...this ended up being really long-winded, but yeah...I own all 3 systems, lol. Here we go!
This gen, the only system I bought at launch was the Wii. I grew up on Nintendo and was still loyal to their platform up to that point. I did buy an Xbox 360 around that time too, under the whole Wii60 movement, which had the premise that you could buy a Wii and a 360 for cheaper than you could buy a PS3, lol...which was true.
I bought a PS3 about a year later when it dropped to $500 (which was still a ridiculous price...but I paid for most of it by earning Guitar Hero II bundles on yourfree360games.com and selling them on eBay). This generation, there actually seemed to be a legitimate reason to own each console, as they each offered different things (at least at launch). The Wii offered motion gaming, the Xbox 360 offered great online gaming, and the PS3 offered high definition movie playback. But now, the 3 consoles seem to have grown more and more similar, so that same appeal really isn't there anymore (though, I still contest that the PS3 is the best blu ray player on the market).
Like most everyone else, I hardly played my Wii. Yeah, I played some of the system exclusives and the games that really made use of the technology, but not enough that I would do it again...so the WiiU has had little appeal to me up to this point. Do I want to play a new Mario game or Lego City Undercover? Sure...but my time is limited as it is.
My PS3, I actually have the least games for...and I really only put significant time into the MLB The Show series. But when my 60GB BC system went down, it seriously hindered mine and my wife's entertainment capacity. We used that thing to stream content from my PC, watch Netflix, watch BR/DVD, etc. After trying out and returning 3 different stand alone blu ray players (some as expensive as $90...which still struggled to play certain brand new blu rays...Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Gran Torino being two specifically), my wife commanded me to buy a new PS3 (picked up a 160gb slim for $130 on Cowboom). We use it every day...several times a day. So, yeah...I don't look at the PS3 as a gaming system...but it is a must own piece of hardware in our household.
As for the Xbox, like many others, I'm heavily invested in their product. I've had XBL Gold for several years, I have countless XBL Arcade games downloaded on my harddrive, my Rock Band DLC list is absurd, etc. I'm basically counting on Microsoft to not
up their next system. Assuming it is good, it will be the next gen system I look to buy. I still won't buy it right away...but if the system ends up sucking or being extremely restrictive, I might have to give console gaming itself a long hard look before deciding to continue.
There were just so many cheap games to pick up this generation. Once a game hit the $10-15 range, I basically asked myself if I ever wanted to play it...because that was probably as cheap as it was going to get. So, I've got games from 4-5 years ago that I haven't even touched. This could easily keep me occupied for several years. Admittedly, I think part of my reluctance to move on to the next generation has to do with my age. When I think about today's 12-16 year olds, they're not going to care about games made in *gasp* 2009. So, the next generation will probably literally appeal to the next generation. But the prices of these fancy consoles still has to meet what parents in 2013 are willing to pay when you consider the alternatives.