stevejnb :
Can you please list the "plenty of painfully obvious reasons" why anyone would pick up an XB1 over a PS4?
The objective assessment of the situation is this - XB1 is less powerful then the PS4. The PS4 has a better set of developer tools (hUMA + DX 11.2+). The PS4 is less expensive by $100. Microsoft has had to change everything since their April reveal (DRM, Kinect, UGP), and could easily go back to the policies they abandoned. Everything on the XB1 is behind a pay wall, including MMO's, video capture and streaming (which is limited to only 5 minutes compared to 15 minutes on the PS4), Netflix, NFL whereas the only thing Sony has put behind a pay wall is Online Multi-player. PS+ is a far superior product than XBL due to the instant game collection, new free games every month for the PSV, PS3 & PS4.
Sony has far better first party developers then Microsoft. Sony's vision of what they want the PS4 to achieve is clearer then Microsoft because Sony went to developers for input on what they wanted from a game console. Looking back on this past generation, Microsoft launched 1 year earlier then the PS3 and was $100-$200 less expensive then the initial PS3's which gave them a large lead in market share in the US.
Microsoft does not have that luxury this time around, they are launching the console 1 week later, $100 more expensive, in 1/3 the countries with 1/3 to 1/2 the demand of the PS4. Microsoft is dead in Japan and they are floundering in Europe. They have resorted to giving away free copies of either Fifa 14 or Forza 5 to increase demand and even that is not working.
Their long term outlook is bleak at this point, the do not have the 1st party developers that can compete with Sony, they are having production issues and they have to rely on timed exclusives like Titanfall to generate demand in 2014.
At the end of the day the only way I see Microsoft competing long term if the US is the only region where they have a decent market share is by leasing the XB1 through cable providers for $10-15/mo. It is a DVR and cable providers could offer it as an upgrade over their original hardware. Either that or they can offer it like T-Mobile does their cellphones, $25 a month for 24 months, which includes 2 years of XBL, which is roughly $600 total. They do not have the systems in place unless they do it through Verizon/ATT/T-Mobile, I have a hard time seeing anyone buying it except for XBL loyalist when right next to it is a superior piece of hardware for $100 cheaper.
While 3rd party launch games may look similar now, the use of hUMA & DX 11.2+ will create a larger gap between the consoles then there was in this generation.
Jprobes, I'm going to proceed based on the assumption that you're somewhat aware of what happened in the last generation and proceed to ask you the question... Are you so, so self absorbed into what you think makes a console worthwhile that you don't see what happened the very last gen? And I'm going to preface this post with, 90% of that crap you mentioned doesn't matter to someone who wants to play games, particularly a certain game, that is landing on console X rather than, let's say, console P.
I see a self absorbed post listing terms like "dead in Japan" and "developer input" and "pay walls" and whatnot - living in the fantasy world that people looking to buy a machine to play games give a rat's arse whether a console is going to do well in Japan or not. People who want to play Forza, Halo, or use the Kinect have one place to go, and it ain't the PS4.
And before you dismiss the Kinect, take a good long look at last gen. Look at console sales - the Wii is still about 20 million ahead of both the PS3 and the XBOX 360. The console that released with outdated hardware and dedicated motion controls *destroyed* the competition. Think on that, and beyond your megahertz and bit wars mentality before you consider what millions of people out there are willing to dump money into, when you consider the painfully obvious about what people actually buy. If HALF the stuff you mentioned were the deciding factor in console sales, the Wii would have been a forgotten footnote at the start of last generation rather than sitting at just shy of 100 million in sales - yet here it is.
You want plenty of painfully obvious reasons? Games, Kinect, and a trusted online infrastructure. Like it or not - and I am well aware that you don't - these are things that can sell console. I'll repeat it - if half that crap you mentioned were deciding, the Wii would be in a shallow grave. Again, look one generation back, and acknowledge the painfully obvious - people may want something different than the purely traditional console.
Honestly, the NES was my second console, and in not one single generation can I think of an instance where there weren't compelling reason to buy any of the major competing consoles. I could easily have listed reasons why I thought console X or Y might not be market leaders, but it was - again - painfully obvious why some people might value what they were offering. That there are still people who are too painfully dense to figure out that people don't share their values in a console at this point, PARTICULARLY after the steamrolling the Wii put on the 360 and PS3 last generation, boggles my mind. Open your eyes and it will be, again, painfully obvious why someone might prefer the XBOX One over the PS4.
You make a pretty solid case as to why the PS4 may well outsell the XB1 over the course of years of sales. You show utter ignorance to the statement that "there are plenty of pretty obvious reasons to pick the XBOX One over the PS4." 100% saturation in motion controls has proven to count for a lot. Certain gaming franchises count for a lot. People who want to play games X, Y, and Z which are on console A and not console B make console A the painfully obvious choice whether it's "dead in Japan" or not.
Simply put? Get in touch with the real world and out of this forum-bred hardware wars bullcrap. What you just spewed at me is what people in the Gamespot System Wars act is what decides what defines your console choice or not, but go figure, some kid who wants to play Halo doesn't care if the XBOX One is "dead in Japan or not." I really have trouble keeping a straight face when you're listing stuff like that as a reason why someone might not want to buy a console that has a game they really like on it, let alone if they happen to like the Kinect style motion control which is really only on the XBOX.
The very last thing I'm going to say is this... I am a happy owner of an XBOX, XBOX 360, and a PS, PS2, and PS3. I've seen arguments like yours flying from both camps to both camps, and I STILL don't entirely get why so many people *loved* the Wii... But I'm not dumb enough to pretend like a single one of those consoles doesn't have compelling reasons for people to buy it. To do so would be utter idiocy.