To be honest, I am going into this next generation of gaming open minded.

I'm going to give each company  a fair chance to wow me, and drive me to their console.

And you know what?

Its a wonderful thing! I am so looking foward to this next generation and getting to see the reveals of all 3 new systems and knowing, ANY ONE of those three could be my next system!

Are you locked into one brand no matter what?

Or are you feeling the open minded freedom?

I've never even owned a nintendo.  But to be honest I'm really liking the screen on the controller to get rid of clutter on the screen or other possible ideas.

Of course. In the end it all really depends on the games.(mainly exclusives)
Power will be a deciding factor as well for me.

User Interface is important as well but as long as it works, not a problem.

locked to sony or MS probably both at some point

i know alot of people say Sony gots the best and most exclusives but for me that dont mean a damn if they dont appeal to you, so the one that gets the best 3rd party support (3rd party exclusives, exclusive content, superior version graphically) is also a plus

consoles?, what consoles? people are prefering smartphones and tablets these days

3rd party exclusives? that was a thing of the past.  The three giants will pretty much have good 3rd party support. The PC also says Hi!

It used to be all of em and I'll end up with all 3 again in the end, though maybe not as quickly as last gen. Games need to come first next gen.

But I guess I'm not all that open minded since I haven't bought iPad or Kinect yet. Been able to wow me yet those have not.

While I was a MS guy this gen, I am thinking of moving back to Sony if they actually improve upon PSN and keep online gaming free. I just don't see a reason for paying for online anymore if I can get it free elsewhere with all the games that I play available with the same quality in the other platform. XBL was the definite winner this gen though.

But tbh I think Sony will start charging for online as well, so in that case I'll just have to choose the console with the most power and potential.

Seeing the kind of games I play I will not get the WiiU that's a given. I mostly get 3rd party games so either PS4 or XB3 but then again I really like Halo and Forza. The companies I follow is Bioware and Bethesda since they make the games I like the most.

Also contrary to most people here I do believe Kinect will change a lot in gaming when devs get to play with it more and more. The next XB is a given but I will surely also get a PS4 if they get my attention. First gen I didn't buy a Playstation, I don't hate Sony, I just happen to play games that are on both so no need to buy both.

The best way is to go open minded I agree. All three of the consoles hardware sales will be neck to neck honestly. Software sales will be critical next gen. <- Obvious I know, but even more so.