What would you like the next-gen consoles to be, and what do you expect they'll actually turn out like?

What would you like the next-gen consoles to be

Affordable

and what do you expect they'll actually turn out like?

Not

I am done with consoles and just use Steam Link with my PC or a Steam Deck docked to it. The deck is the last console I'll own.

I want a Steam console that is a PC running Steam OS. It can be cheaper than the Steam Deck because it doesn't need a screen/battery. It can be more powerful because the box is expected to be connected to the power supply all the time.
Then I can use Steam Link with it via any mobile device.

I want a Steam Deck Pocket, that actually fits in my pocket. Something that fills the void left behind by the GBC/GBA/DS I grew up on.

What I like to see:

Steam Deck Lite: cheaper and lighter than the big Deck
Steam Console: not a handheld but an affordable PC running Steam OS
Switch 2 Lite: cheaper and lighter than the big Switch 2, allow docking as an option
Playstation Portable Next: let it run Playstation 1,2,3,4 games

What I expect to see:

Xbox Series 720 One XX: ridiculous console names with unaffordable prices. Or the Xbox brand might just cease to exist.

Steam Deck Lite
The most demanding game I replay from my library is Devil May Cry 5 with a GTX 760 minimum requirement. I would absolutely love a Steam Deck Lite.

I'll honestly be surprised if we get another gen of consoles. Microsoft isn't going to release a new "console" and if they do it'll just be a glorified streaming box. That just leaves Sony and Nintendo. I could see them also moving towards streaming their content to whatever boxes are available. that's here the money is at anyways. charge various monthly tier subscriptions for the content. The days of owning physical media are over.

What would you like the next-gen consoles to be

I wish for a portable pc similar to the steam deck but as thin and light as a nintendo switch with good battery life. What we have currently is great and all but they're massive and power hungry

what do you expect they'll actually turn out like?

More of the same.

Nintendo will absolutely make a switch 2 lite, sony will make a newer more powerful playstation 6, xbox will either cease to exist or end up making a pc box

that said I don't think were getting the next gen of consoles any time soon. electronic hardware is crazy expensive these days and there hasn't been any major improvements in hardware capability, nobody is going to buy a ps6 if it's only 20% better than a ps5 and costs twice as much

Im guessing at least for the next five years, this generation is here to stay

Everything's a computer now. The console war is over. Software has won.

Nobody informed Sony.

I want holograms. I want physical movement and interaction. I want to be able to play tennis with a friend who is on the other side of the country. I want to be immersed in an rpg and walk around in the environment and swim in the water. I want my DND GM to draft up new scenarios that we can play together. Doesn’t have to be physical touch…yet.

Thing is, graphics are already pretty solid. Have been for a while now. I haven’t bought a new console since gen 7(ps3) though I am looking soon. I’ll probably buy gen 8, maybe 9 unless something really wows me that I can play with my family. But if we had holograms, and they were decent, I’d splurge a bit for that.

What we will probably get is just slightly better graphics, that hog a lot of energy. AI will somehow be embedded, be it to enhance graphics or perhaps augment/customize them to personal tastes. Maybe a little more ability to personalize avatars quickly and automatic by the day/mood/environment if you pony up for the idea. Perhaps some mega worlds that auto gen new quests based upon some kind of secret sauce algorithm.

I tire of console generations. I want console manufacturers to start to care about the immense amounts of waste generated by this business model. Making millions of devices using rare earth minerals, then treating them as disposable every 6 to 7 years is horrible, actually. I'd love to see consoles made to be used long term, with parts that are made to be swapped out and upgraded like a PC. This won't happen of course.

LOL. Next week's end of Windows 10 will send 400 million computers to landfills.
- That's bad as well, but also, you don't have to use windows on a PC. My computer isn't supported by windows 11, but I can play modern releases on linux just fine. Frankly, you can even install windows 11 on unsupported hardware, these options aren't available for like, the Nintendo Switch.
Same. Sony and Nintendo and Microsoft should all invest more in helping developers make great games, including games that don’t really require the high end hardware but have innovative gameplay or story structure.
Are they being treated as disposable? I always sell my old consoles or use them until they stop working.
- They are, they aren't going to help you to maintain that hardware after they've moved on to the next console generation - and for parts you'll have to turn to third party sources. They aren't designed to be maintained. Their online services get shut down, and games stop being made to run on them. Meanwhile I can take a PC that was manufactured 15 years ago, and run many games that came out this year on them (albeit indie titles). I totally still use old consoles long term personally, but it's always in a pretty limited capacity - homebrew does help I suppose.

I’d like to see incremental improvements to the Steam Deck including easier repair, upgrade, and modding. I’d like to see more Linux titles. (My life would be so much easier if there was a native Linux version of Bedrock Minecraft.)

I have no clue what Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo will do, but I’m positive it’ll be driven by profits over user experience.

For Switch, I would like them to keep doing what they want, but I won't mind if they introduce some new gimmick while keeping the backward compatibility.

For proper home console, I am not sure. As a patient gamer I am still playing most games from mid-to-late 2010s, but even some of the later games I have tried, it doesn't feel like PS5 power is fully used. Other than games going for 8K / 120fps, I am not sure what more they can do. So I am not really excited for the next console. I hope it would be exciting when PS6 is announced, but as of now, I don't really care about it.

I'd like consoles to move away from x86-64 APUs, and head into ARM. Nintendo is already on ARM, so it's not an outrageous suggestion. I suspect it's a more promising architecture, with potentially more gains in efficiency in the near future.

No idea where they'll actually go from here.