I am thinking very seriously about going with Nintendo for this round. I have always been a Sega man, but I went with the X-box last time, mostly because I hate Sony (but also because it had a few Sega games I was interested in playing). The release of KOTOR II pretty much pushed me to buying the machine. I also thought the controller (S) for the X-box was quite good, even though it didn't have 6 full-on buttons on the face and a pretty shoddy D-pad (then again, there hasn't been a good D-pad since the Saturn), which makes it nigh-on impossible to play a good Capcom fighter (which I am also quite fond of). I don't hate Sony per sé, but I hate what they've done to the industry, and I also think their consoles are unreliable (although I still think the X-box design was bloody woeful too). I remember people replacing their playstations while I was still playing my Saturn (although my Saturn did eventually malfunction last year, and I needed to replace it). In fact, I believe that the X-box and the PS2 were the two ugliest consoles since the NES and Master System I. In point of fact, I thought the idea of the X-box was a little lacking as well, in that it was basically a computer crammed into a console shell. It had 4 controller ports, which I believe should have been the industry standard since the N64, but it didn't have nearly enough good 4-player games outside of FPS and perhaps racing. Nintendo have become masters of the true party game IMHO, although a lot can be said for 16-player Halo on system link. All of these multiplayer options need to be FULLY exploited in order to maximise the gaming experience in this next generation. If it doesn't happen this time 'round, I'm gonna start running one of the damn companies myself. So, this is a bit unfocused, but this is what I'm saying:

A console needs

- A well-designed, ergonomic controller (a la X-box)
- A good D-pad & 6 face buttons for 2D fighters (a la Sega Saturn)
- 4 controller ports (a la N64)
- Decent in-built memory (a la X-box)
- NO NEED FOR MEMORY CARDS, but option available
- Full internet capabilities, even with options for mouse and keyboard
- Full multiplayer support STANDARD for ALL APPLICABLE GAMES, online and offline (this can be integrated into the machine itself, and the hardware itself can be an encouragement to developers to use it)
- System link capabilities (a la X-box)
- DVD playability, WITHOUT THE NEED TO BUY A REMOTE TO USE IT (pet peeve - I'm NOT buying an X-box DVD Remote until the price is next to nothing)
- Disc tray comes out the front, i.e. a proper CD/DVD/whatever player (unlike the Saturn and Playstation - laser lens problems abound)
- Headphone jack, to play silently (I used this on my Megadrive all the time so that my parents wouldn't catch me staying up!)
- Power and RESET buttons on the front face (a la Megadrive)

Other things can be useful (like USB ports and multimedia connectivity), but that is basically what you need for a good console design, IMHO.