I voted for xbox one for now.
My background is of Nintendo in the early days, then sharing time with PC gaming, skipping the Wii, loving xbox360, and passing on the ps3. I passed on the ps3 because it gathered dust in all my friends' places whereas the xbox360 got used. I do consider myself an off-and-on-again core gamer, if you use those terms.
I'll give the PS4 consideration, but at the end of the day, I likely only have time and interest enough to give to one console, not two. I'll probably simply flow to where the most core gamers flow to.
The PS3 doesn't do it because it was difficult/expensive to develop for, so it never really had quite the library for its first 3/4 of life that the xbox360 had and lacked good online support. The PS4 needs to change that and start out strong in North America. Sony lost money on the PS3. It's been a huge uphill battle for them, and not one they win in North America. They trounce the xbox360 though in other markets, particularly Asia. It'll be interesting. Clearly having the best specs is not the key; the Wii outsold everyone (despite being a borderline failure to gamers) and had the worst specs. The PS3 has always been ahead on a purely device technical level (minus the Move/Kinect comparo), but if you can't court the core gamers and have a quality library with key system features that match or beat the competition, you will still struggle. The Wii got by because it courted a different market, but it's not a sustainable market unlike the core gamer market.
The good thing in all of this is that 3 platforms (plus PC and Mobile/Handhelds) went into this last generation and 3 platforms survived and are emerging for the next round. Competition is good.
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