With the debate after Wii U's presentation, some analysts and insiders expressed their concern that the console will be in-between generations. These people believe that the console will be a means to transition between hardware generations and will be considered more of an upgrade, rather than taking a full leap to the next generation like the PS4 or Xbox1080.

EA COO Peter Moore does not share that opinion. In a recent interview, Moore said that specs and graphics will begin to take less of an important role and will make way for other elements such as interfaces, communities, and controls.

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What do you think? Are future generations going to be defined by interfaces rather than graphics?

Yes he has a point. As I already said in older threads, graphics can get 100 times better on a technical level, but the more you upgrade, the less people will notice the difference.

Yes, but I reckon that interfaces are were new breakthroughs will come. I am a Ps3 and PC fan, so one would expect me to prefer graphics to gamplay, but still, having new ways to play is enticing. Every player must have felt, at some moment, limited by what he could do in a game, specially action packed games, like sports, Western RPGs and shooters. So new ways to play can free you from that limitations. 

The problem is that up till now, few devs have used the latest tools(Wii remote, move and Kinect) in a way that let you saying wow. So, with new interfaces like the one being used by WiiU, we have to hope this changes and devs and publishers start thinking out of the box.

transitional my foot

graphics will improve along with gameplay elements

graphics will be more mature with 3D user experience and physiscs in game and with visuals

wii was great but it was cheap and PS3 was way too expensive and XBOX was a small brand back in the day

now all companies are well know,will be closely priced so don't expect a Wii like success

Changing the interface is only good if it brings in new kinds of customers while keeping your existing market. As we have seen, 3D and Kinect are divisive interface innovations: they lose you your current audience and segment the platform.

Wii U's changes will only be useful if they manage to bring over the Wii new audience AND expand the market more to people who don't currently play games. This can only be done via software, not technology. I see little evidence Nintendo is interested in those who didn't buy a Wii and DS. Indeed they seem to have backed off from the simple, low-budget games that even got them there.

Most of the key titles of Wii and DS (NSMB, Animal Crossing, Brain Training, Mario Kart, Pokemon) hardly used the new interfaces.

I think that is true cause I will like to see something better looking then Battlefeild 3.

Brain Training did enough I think; the other games did not really have areas where motion would have been that much more intuitive. No point in Ninty forcing the motion features in there.

With the Wii ultra, the hardest thing will be making that tablet usable by everyone, while at the same time using games where you dont even have to imagine the controls as soon as you start it. Some of the best games are those where you can correctly guess the controls instinctively.

While I agree with most of the things Peter Moore said, nothing better than 1080p (for TVs) or reaching a point of diminishing returns, I have to disagree with him when he says that it will be about the interface.

If Wii has taught us something is that:
1-If a new interface doesn't always work with all kind of games, and the wiimote hardly worked with racing or fighting games, developers won't use it.
2-The power of a console matters. You may have the best interface, but if developers can't bring their games to your console using the same basic assets (graphics engine, textures, etc) they will not bother.

When you look at how the industry has evolved over the past 10 (or so) years, and see the success of the Wii, Nintendo DS, and iPhone as gaming platforms (as well as the steady decline of PC games that push hardware limits) it should be clear that we long ago passed the point that graphics were the primary driving factor for the mainstream gamer.

"So I don’t know what Xbox and PlayStation’s plans for their next platforms are, but it’s not going to be hanging on graphic fidelity"

That's what I hope.