Influence goes to Marcus Fenix and the Gears franchise, I'd say. Epic revolutionized 3rd-person shooter mechanics, and there are a ton of copycats.

Nathan Drake is right behind thanks to Uncharted's style of platforming.

Batman is not a new character. The Arkham fanchise is a new product.

Call me crazy but I really liked Cole. Andrew Ryan should get a slight nod too.

I was going to say Pit, 8th Gen, but then I realize from looking at the OP that you are talking about the 7th Gen LOL.

So nevermind.

I honestly think the 7th Gen Software library was the worse outside of a small batch of games. But to each their own.

I say the 6th gen beats the 7th gen easily, and same goes for the 8th gen which also beats the 7th gen easily already.

This could only be decided by a person who owns at least both consoles. Still, I see many people here who own only one person, so... I liked John Marston the most, but infulential? No, not really. Nathan? Perhaps. But I only know of the new Lara which was somehow influenced by Nathan, still the game is quite different to what Uncharted is.

RDR, FF, GTA and Batman are not new IPs.

Honestly I don't think that any of those characters are particularly influential. When I think of influential characters in gaming I think of Snake, Master Chief, Mario, Lara Croft.....those characters are influential. There are a few others, but the list of actually influential characters is a pretty short one. There are definitely more influential games than there are influential characters.

I can't think of a new character this gen that could actually be called influential, aside from perhaps Commander Shepard, but even that's iffy to say at the current point in time.

The only other noteworthy character on this list is John Marston, who was absolutely brilliant, but can't be called influential at this point either.

There are a few games were the Mii avatar type character is used.... more than a few. Sadly, this makes it the most influential. It's original because, it's you. You are in  video game. Not to mention Sony and MS picked up the idea and ran with it... So it influenced the way we play games and how the companies focus  the casuals was more forced. This takes the gold. It changed games forever.

I suppose you now know what I meant in previous comments on this thread.

Cole was really cool, but I cannot wait for second Son. Hopefully they make him a badass.

Hate to say it, but Kid Icarus isnt a new IP. Its just an old IP Nintendo resurfaced from the 80's. I think Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Pikmin are like Nintendos newest IP's in a while.