My perspective on this generation:
Nintendo - repackaged hardware, "innovative controls", mitigated development risk, leverage on mascot based exclusive franchises
Result: Massive early sales and public hype, early eol for the console (dwindling sales of the wii, heavily decreased growth)
MS - rushed console, costly early issues, well supported online functionality, paid timed exclusivity
Result: seemingly most stable current generation but not without (avoidable) major expenses
Sony - Powerful initial hardware specs, rush to launch meant many specs (and power) gimped, "last minute" GPU design choice, lost exclusivity, expensive hardware but well supported 1st party studios
Result: significant loss of market and mind-share (i'm not including their apparent large investment in hardware development etc since i'm not sure how that will impact the PS3/PS4)
There are lessons to be learned from each.
And the perfect console would therefore have:
Innovative yet simple controls and not at the cost of visual fidelity
Visual fidelity yet not at too great a consumer expensive
Robust online/major interconnected-ness - this is also a major expense to manage and maintain
Exclusives that people want and associate the company with(don't neglect your precious mascots), not necessarily what is most visually/technically impressive. This is the most difficult yet most important requirement.
Timing, yes timing is everything but the foundation is far more important. Far too much emphasis placed on release timing. Companies should rather focus on what can control - which is the quality of their own console not the release timing of others
