I ask this question because I always hear people say the next gen will have incredible graphics. No one seems to talk about how next gen should push gameplay experiences and allow developers to fully realize their visions. Like the wiiU in my opinion it could have graphics 10% better than the 360/ps3 and still be considered a gen ahead of them because it brings new experiences to the market it allows players to do new things and it should excite developers in creating new games based upon how unique the controller is. Shouldnt a step ahead in a console generation be more focused on how we can get new experiences through gameplay instead of how good the game will look?

No, because by that definition, Kinect is a new generation.

It should be neither. It should just be when the next set of consoles is launched.

But I like your thinking, the idea that in previous years it has always been a large graphical increase. The increase this time might not be as noticable so interaction is the new key but that's just interaction in a game and that can be launched at any time, whether it's Singstar, Eyetoy or Kinect.

@Kantor
Kinect isn't a console in itself so wouldn't count as the new generation anyway, surely.

what defines the next gen is it changes gaming. Take a look at what this gen did, it bought online gaming to an new level on the consoles. Last gen could be defined for creating the SandBox with GTA the height of last gen. What this next gen needs to bring is an new level of gaming experiences.

The future of gaming is games which experiences are created in real time for the way you play and the game will adjust to your preferred play style. That is auto generation of maps and the game AI doing the maths and generating the content for the player. We haven't reached it but we all the effort the industry placed on graphics went into this then gaming would greatly improve.

Chronology. It's quite simple

It has technology or features that are included by default and drives the creation of new gameplay experiences that were not possible previously ... What makes it part of a "generation" is a lose association with other systems that were released at a similar time; and not all systems ever released have clearly belonged to one generation or another.

Being far superior to the consoles currently on the market.

When Sony says so.

Graphics come with more ram and more processing power of CPU.

Processing power and ram allows more complicated gameplay mechanics and bigger  areas on screen as well as more enemies at once etc.

So I'd consider "graphics" as a shortcut for generally more powerfull hardware.

New controls don't make your console automatically next generation because they could have been just as well added to previous console model as add-on.

hmm yea your right power and ram does help the gameplay mechanis alot. Though in terms of controls could something like the wiiu's remote run on the regular wii?