Next Generation Consoles - Will you be getting one?

[Harrison]

Are you interested in the next generation of games consoles? And are you planning on buying one?

Wii U

The Wii U is already available, but hardly anyone I know has even heard of it, it's not selling well, and shops are already discounting it to £200 for the primium bundle.

PS4

The PS4 has been announced, but it isn't the huge generation leap people were hoping for. It will however be much easier to develop for thanks to Sony talking to developers and building it using PC components they already know about, making it much easier to code for than the previous Playstations. But other than the hardware change to a more standard set of components the only other real difference so far is the updated controller with Move tracking and a touchpad. I imagine the UI will be an evolution of the existing PS3 one and other than that I expect it to feel much like the current PS3. It is looking more promising for direct support compared to the PS3 though thanks to the more PC like architecture.

Xbox 720

The next Xbox.

Steam Box

Valve have been working on this for some time. It will be a middle spec PC running a custom version of Linux for access to Linux based Steam games on your TV. Valve already rolled out their "big screen" feature on Steam earlier in the year, allowing users to connect their PC to a TV and play games and control Steam itself with a controller. Not all games are directly supported, especially on the Windows version (because there are so many games available released over many years), but Steam does flag those with full or partial support for the system.

The Steam Box is only going to run the Linux Steam games, so will be a much more limited selection of games, but will be interested to watch and see how it performs and sells.

Ouya

An Android based console funded by the fund raising site Kickstarter. This has already gone into production, but I read they are having issues with the first batch. It is an interesting concept, obviously not up to the same power as a full console, but with a big catalogue of Android games already available. The big question though is how well they will translate to the big screen, especially when most games are designed for touch and small screen interaction.

GameStick

This is another Android based console due out in April. I don't know much about this one yet, but its a similar Android on your TV style console like the Ouya.

nVidia Project Shield

This was a big surprise announcement from nVidia, to develop their own games console. It is a handheld gaming console featuring their new Tegra 4 processor/GPU. The successor to the Tegra 3 found in the Nexus 7 and other Android tablets and phones, and very powerful for handheld gaming. This looks really interesting as it is Android based. The design basically looks like an oversized Xbox 360 controller with a screen bolted on. This probably interests me the most out of the Android gaming systems due out.

So which if any of these are you interested in? And are there any more I've missed?