According to a report by Nielsen, game consoles aren’t just being used to play games anymore; they’re video watching machines too.

A survey in October showed that online video streaming is on the rise for the top three consoles, Microsoft Xbox, Playsation 3, and Nintendo Wii. The Wii is the most popular video game console used for online streaming.

The report shows that 33% of the time spent on the Nintendo Wii goes to video streaming, with the PS3 at 15%, and Xbox at 14%. Those numbers might reflect the demographics that use those consoles, with the Wii being the most family friendly and mainstream.

Video streaming on the three consoles are up 7% since 2010, and all of these numbers show that consoles aren’t just for gaming, and that people are spending more and more time on them.

We recently reported the complete user interface overhaul on the Xbox, which proves that Microsoft is predicting that the console is a focus point in the living room. Popular services like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and ESPN3 allow for a seamless viewing experience that doesn’t require switching the console off and cable TV on.

These trends aren’t going to slow down either, because fast internet is commonplace in the home, especially for serious gamers.

Nintendo has confirmed that it is to release a sucessor to its popular motion-sensing Wii gaming console in 2012, debuting the system at this year’s E3 gaming expo in June.

In a press release [PDF] on its Japanese site , Nintendo detailed the sales of the first-generation console, notifying investors of its plans to introduce a new system to rival those of Microsoft and Sony:

Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011.

We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.

Sales of this new system have not been included in the financial forecasts announced today for the fiscal term ending March 2012.

Slashgear predicts the next-generation Nintendo Wii – known as the Nintendo Wii 2 in various reports – will launch after March 2012 given the fact that the new console has not been included in the company’s current financial forecasts.

Nintendo has battled with increasing sales of its Wii console over the past year, falling behind sales of Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation. Sales of Microsoft’s Kinect accessory, which allows players to interact wirelessly and without a controller, recently passed 10 million units, making it the fastest selling consumer gadget of all time.