For me it's tied to the 360. It has to have backwards compatiblity (maybe not 100%, but certainly better than we had in the XBox to 360 transition), and just as importantly backwards compatiblity with 360 DLC. The second one seems like it could be a difficult situation. No idea what kind of deals, say, Harmonix has in place that would or wouldn't allow them to make songs work on another console.

I know that a lot of people write off backwards compatiblity as something that doesn't matter after a year or so, and I do agree somewhat. But the XBox and 360 are in completely different boats. Catering to the XBox audience when the 360 showed up wasn't totally necessary since the XBox didn't exactly set the world on fire. This time around the console was extremely popular and has had an incredibly long lifespan, and it seems crazy to me that they wouldn't do everything they could to try to make it easy for their current customers thinking about plunking down another $400 (or whatever) by reassuring them that this can completely replace their 360 with no worries about giving up the games they already have.

Not to mention the industry has changed massively since the last console transition. There are a lot of people with a TON of money invested into content that is tied to their consoles that they can't just go and dump off at Gamestop. I know the attitude of the game industry could just be "fuck 'em, we got their money, gave them what they paid for, now it's time to move on" but I don't think it really can be as cut and dried as that with the way things are now. I'm probably wrong but I'll maintain foolish hope that everything will carry over, at least for now. I'm going to be incredibly reluctant to buy ANY upcoming console if I'll be starting over at zero. I can't be the only person who feels like between games, special editions of games, online services, and DLC they have sunk more money into this current generation of consoles than any other (for me, dating back to the Atari 5200).

Just as importantly, MS needs to make up for the 360 launch by showing customers some good will and proving that they have solid hardware. Gamers certainly have short memories and are willing to forget just about anything, but I still have a feeling a lot more people than normal will be taking a wait-and-see approach to see if we get another hardware failure debacle like last time. I know I won't exactly be standing in line at midnight...I'll let others be the guinea pigs.

Oh, and although it will never happen since we're not ready for it yet...a digital distribution-only console would be something I'd avoid completely. I want my discs.

Wait when did this leak?

Oh, and although it will never happen since we're not ready for it yet...a digital distribution-only console would be something I'd avoid completely. I want my discs.

Amateur, uneducated prediction: Next generation will release most or all disc-based games in an online store and on store shelves.

I think Sony has the right idea with this. If you buy first party games and some other third party ones off of their online store instead of at a games store, you get something like ten percent knocked off the price. Sounds like good thinking to me.

Good games.

And yeah you should be able to import your XBLA games to the new system. If you can't do that then they fucked up. But I'll still buy it if it has good games.

Big hard drive, better than any PC on the market, blu-ray or digital distribution, very quiet, no always online DRM, and a price point under $600.

Better exclusives than the ones it has had for the past few years that's for sure.

@Rappelsiini said:

Wait when did this leak?

Shrug. I saw Jeff say something about putting in a placeholder for the next XBox, so here we are.

The Durango name has been around for at least a couple of months - maybe longer, but I first remember seeing it in early April.

@Twinsun: don't worry I'm sure there will tons of Kinect exclusive titles... Oh wait, you said BETTER.... Good Luck...

• Larger/Fairer focus on digital distribution. There is no reason in 2012 that I should have to wait for a digital release of a game when it is readily available in retail stores, nor should I have to pay the same price for a digital copy.
• A dashboard that isn't a clusterfuck to navigate. The new dashboard is a mess and only a complete re-design can solve this.
• A sound hardware design. If Microsoft haven't learned from the millions of dollars they lost repairing RROD 360's then my confidence in the company's Xbox department will severely fall.
• Good games. This is pretty self explanatory.

Those are the main four I can really think of. It'd be nicer to have a larger hard drive, a free online service, and a Blu-Ray drive but I doubt the latter two will happen.

A dashboard that isn't a pain in the ass to use and isn't full of ads, and better exclusives.

Hmmm... What would make me buy an Xbox? 
 
Mouse and keyboard support, stable internet connection, mod tools and support, a CPU and GPU and RAM that will run the latest games on their highest settings with over 50 fps (and for many years after its release), and that it will be capable of supporting massive multiplayer numbers, not less than half of what a given game can actually provide (BF3). And be able to support massive games such as Arma, Planetside, Starcraft and Guild Wars and run them well. 
Dedicated servers for games and a dedicated and manageable voice server with channels and everything.
Also it needs to fully have and support Steam, including the overlay with the screenshot function, friends list and communications, the Steam Community with the groups and workshop and mods.  
Also hardware parts that can be taken out, fixed separately and cheaply, not YLODs and those stupid errors that require sending my device somewhere for weeks and paying a lot of money. 

Then I'd buy it.

I want the next Marketplace to act like it has some goddamn sense. There's no reason why DLC for a 5 year old game should cost as much as a disc of the full game.

I want improved voice chat and for it to ship w/ better mics - any time you have more than 2 people in a group it gets hard to hear and people cut in and out.

I want the Dashboard to have a fucking NAT check on it. Not buried in the menus, not in the internet settings. Right on the front page, maybe under the Icon of the game in the tray. Your NAT is: [insert NAT here]. I hate having to load up Gears of War or Halo to check on something so basic that's ONLY an issue for 360 (I've never had to worry about NAT gaming on my PC).

Games worth playing.

1080p 60fps standard on all games ( no upscaling business )

bluray drive ( or some kind of format that holds more than enough data so that the game isn't split into mutliple discs)

backward compatibility and marketplace transfer from the old xbox.

3 tb hard drive

easier to navigate dashboard

web browser support

quality hardware that won't die on you within the year....

about three years on the market. no way in hell am I buying one right away not after the red rings I have gone through

@pyromagnestir said:

Good games.

And yeah you should be able to import your XBLA games to the new system. If you can't do that then they fucked up. But I'll still buy it if it has good games.

Bingo. If they want to hook us on this digital shit, then it better last forever.

To come out. Let me have my goddamn next gen consoles already so I can start spec-ing out my next PC build.

@AhmadMetallic: Just stick to PC.

New games.

Free online. At this point I doubt it will happen, but it's what I'd like to see. If they want to charge for all the extra stuff like Twitter and access to Hulu that's fine, but simple playing games online should be free especially if the publishers are looking to tack on charges for online priority gaming queues.

Keeping the name Xbox Durango.

Before this generation I wasnt an "Hardcore Gamer" for lack of a better term. I didnt have a job, I was 19 at the time and just graduating high school. Also i just didnt play that many video games to buy consoles when they first came out. Now though, Im in too deep. There is no way that I wont choose one or the other when they launch.

Maybe not breaking on launch day?

because the 360 is modern-ish, i would want complete backwards compatability for all 360 games, arcade games, and the other stuff via transfer cable

other than compatability i want reliability. The consoles should not have any hardware/software error and the other products such as mics and controllers should work just as good as my N64 controllers

Good games.

Hmmm... What would make me buy an Xbox? 
 
Mouse and keyboard support, stable internet connection, mod tools and support, a CPU and GPU and RAM that will run the latest games on their highest settings with over 50 fps (and for many years after its release), and that it will be capable of supporting massive multiplayer numbers, not less than half of what a given game can actually provide (BF3). And be able to support massive games such as Arma, Planetside, Starcraft and Guild Wars and run them well. 
Dedicated servers for games and a dedicated and manageable voice server with channels and everything.
Also it needs to fully have and support Steam, including the overlay with the screenshot function, friends list and communications, the Steam Community with the groups and workshop and mods.  
Also hardware parts that can be taken out, fixed separately and cheaply, not YLODs and those stupid errors that require sending my device somewhere for weeks and paying a lot of money. 

Then I'd buy it.

Vidja games

Frigging awesome non PC exclusives and or ridiculous price of like 300 bucks cuz i just built a 1500 computer rig.

A game that does for it the same thing Gears did for the 360, in other words the first good game on the system might make me go out and buy one. I would probably just wait until they release Halo 5 on it before I would buy one though.

It needs these simple things:

• A hard drive no smaller than 500GB
• The ability to play games
• FULL backward compatibility with the entirety of the Xbox 360 library
• I can play my XBLA games on it.
• Achievements...and something that makes them way more meaningful

Beyond that, I could give a fuck less.

@Marz said:

1080p 60fps standard on all games ( no upscaling business )

I agree with 1080p, but I don't fully agree with the 60fps part. That sounds weird, but allow me to explain:

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was hardlocked to 30fps on Xbox 360, and personally, I preferred it that way. It gave the game an extra feeling of weight, which is something that helped with my level of immersion in that game. There are other games which do this as well. I feel that it should be the stylistic choice of the studio themselves whether to use 30fps or 60fps. It's much the same way that some people choose to use one grain of film stock over the other when it comes to photography, cinema, etc. If you force people to be at 60fps no matter what, you could take away some potential creative liberty.

To exist. I'm the idiot who has got a launch 3ds and vita. I'd probably buy the next Xbox what ever happens, unless its a crazy kinect only thing, or something like that.

• Retro-active Achievement system, profiles as well.
• Better Avatar support. I want to feel like he is actually a representation of me, rather than just another Pogo.com ripoff.
• Retro-active compatibility, mainly for the Arcade but also the Retail.
• Better hardware stability.
• Better Hardware overall, I want it to look pretty, obviously, but also run at a higher than 30 average FPS.
• Large Hard-drive out the gate, I regret ever purchasing the Kinect bundle for $299. I still can only have 1-2 arcade games loaded on my console and cannot take advantage of the Games on Demand.
• Exclusive games that really mean something. I don't want place-holders while we wait for the big releases months later. I will only buy it if there is something I want to play, at the launch.

Things I don't need, but would really like:

• Blu-Ray support. I think this one is obviously happening, though. Unless they go pure digital when it comes to movies/TV.
• Mouse-Keyboard support. I would really like this because I think it would allow for more than just console games to release with it. It would be easier for games to port over if they knew it was an easy accomplishment to pull out a KB&M.
• MMO Support. One of my favorite genres is the MMO. It doesn't necessarily need to be GW2 or WoW, but a game that supports a persistent experience that doesn't involved a wall of stats, only.
• Mod Support - I think many of the reasons people choose PC over the consoles, excluding graphics, is the mod support. I want to add a perpetual value to my games longevity instead of feeling left out when my friend comes over and tells me about this awesome customization.
• More from Xbox Live. I think we get a lot of great things from Xbox Live right now, but the problem is it just feels like another SmartTV kind of thing going on. We have apps, but nothing really that makes me feel like the console relies on gaming anymore. I want to be able to have apps that focus on the gamers experience, maybe even social, rather than the availability of every channel on demand.

There may be more, but that's really all I can think about right now.

I really have no interest of buying the next Xbox any time soon.  Took me three years to buy the 360 so I expect longer then that as I got tons of games to play still. 
 
But, I would like for them to offer new games online for a nice discount and they gotta allow you to continue your profile.

• Achievements.
• Better and easier-to-use dashboard.
• XBLA games I've purchased on my 360 should be playable on "Durango".
• Backwards compatibility (did I get that right?) on disc games would be neat, but personally not a must.
• No fucking ads on the dashboard, especially if you're a XBL Gold member.
• Obviously a step-up in game performance and graphics (especially FPS). No more framedrops to 10 FPS when things get hectic.
• Not being online-only, my Internet is too unreliable.
• Better and faster patch support to games.
• No size limit on patches / DLC / XBLA games.

I want the next Xbox to go back to using blades... or that green orb layout the old Xbox used.

Gallery

Free online, a decent user interface, no RROD issues, and role-playing games beyond the first wave that MS just throws money at.

Haha, who am I kidding? Yeah, I'll be waiting a good couple of years before I even consider getting the next Xbox.

Video games.

I want to have my ENTIRE arcade library available, my entire gamertag profile with achievements and downloads.

A simpler UI, more like metro. Like MORE METRO. Downloadable games day 1. A more variable marketplace with price drops and sales. I guess a better store then. Less ads. More apps. No limits on patches or game sizes. Get rid of MS points.

DRM.
 
I probably won't buy it, either way, but seeing DRM on a console would be nice.

Nothing specific. It's not a matter of if, but when for me. ASAP upon release.

If I had one request or wish it would be that the they fix the clusterfuck that is the dashboard for the next-gen xbox.

A name that is better than Durango is a start.

Gaems.

Good games.

I bought an Xbox 360 and it overheat due to a hardware malfunction so they need to make sure that doesn't happen again , either way I'm more interested in Sony's IPs so I won't be buying one before getting the next playstation console.

One that doesn't F***ing RRoD every year.

@Dezztroy said:

DRM. I probably won't buy it, either way, but seeing DRM on a console would be nice.

I think you mean no DRM, I don't think anyone want digital rights managment loaded on to their device more than it already is. Also, a DRM free console will never happen, and if you're so concerned about it, buy GOG.com games and get a PC.

No subscription for online and more interesting exclusives would help.

It has to be a Playstation and have Team ICO support.

So in sort I have no interest.

Power steering

An acceptable hardware failure rate. I refuse to purchase Microsoft's next console until it's been proven that it won't die if given a funny look.