I have a vested interest in connecting to my media server, playing games, watching TV, skyping. And guess what? I paid in full for the console on Monday. It will attach to my $2000 server, my 30 megabit Internet, my $15,000 home theater setup. And I'll be doing it all on my $5,000 couch. Sounds like I managed to scrounge up enough for my gaming console of choice, doesn't it?

I'm a youth and I can afford to buy 2 of them and have money left over for games

I'm in the same economic position. The debates are helpful in deciding.

Yeah but don't believe everything that you see in the debates, because the majority of it is propaganda and fanboys spitting bs to promote their console. This one however is legit and the most factual and reasonable that I have seen so far.

[quote]That's a wall of text of one guys opinion against the normal accepted one.[/quote] Which also is the PS fanboy's point of view. You're saying someone who actually used logic in their argument towards which tech is better (neither), is worse because the majority of people (who don't know what they're talking about) compared numbers and deemed the PS better? Popular opinion isn't always right. [quote]So it's marketed towards absolutely no one who would have vested interest and/or or ability buying a 500$ game console the day it comes out. [/quote] They're making friendlier games because guess what, the parents who go out looking for a home entertainment system will find solace in the fact that their children will also enjoy it. And to even think that the Xbox is marketing only towards casual, younger gamers is ridiculous; they're only expanding their market to [b]include[/b] the younger audience, not focus solely on it. As far as mature games go I say Xbox is on par with PS, if not above them. [quote]So they actively WANT to cater to other corporations and businesses while ignoring the consumer? I wonder why there's such uproar in the first place?[/quote] You missed the point of the OP. Microsoft is listening to corporations, the ones who you know, make the games for us. You might like to think that there's some magic power existing to keep companies making games if they're deemed good, but there isn't. Companies know this and want systems in place to ensure that their sales can be as high as possible. Maybe this does hurt us as gamers, but only because we have to buy games we want to play from the companies that make them. It's not like they're making new games any harder to get, just making other avenues of getting used games more difficult, but still possible. [quote]O RLY[/quote] This isn't mandatory, it's an optional choice we as gamers can make. On top of this the profits from DLC for one game aren't enough to keep a company running. If it were we wouldn't have CoD sequels every year. [quote] giving them all exclusive pre-order bonuses to encourage business there the next day[/quote] You think that they're just [i]giving[/i] Gamestop pre-order bonuses? The game companies are selling the bonuses to them. Why don't you see your small, local game store offer these bonuses? Because they can't afford them. Gamestop buys those bonuses to try and draw business to their stores, for new purchases, through these offers. Why do you think Gamestop never offers a bonus which lasts longer than a pre-order? Because if they offered that bonus for the entire time the used sales for that game would decrease, which in turn decreases their profits. [quote]What will be MS's competition when they and only they have the control over their own marketplace that everything Xbox will be forced to go through or be locked down? There won't be any. And consumers will be straddled with higher prices with more inconvenience with no other option because there is no market on Xbox live, only Microsoft.[/quote] There will always be game stores. If MS wants people to buy directly from their marketplace then they will have to offer good deals. If the deals are non-existant, and if we are "straddled with higher prices with more inconvenience" we will have another option, it's the game stores. MS isn't making anything worse with what they've done, they're just encouraging people to buy new. I haven't bought a new game since Halo 4, and am upset that I'll have less options to buy the cheaper used game. But look at all my points, and the points made by the OP to see why it makes sense that it's happening that way.

Xbox is taking a further step into consoles, but it is a big change, and people don't like changes. That's what the ps4 is for. I honestly think the xbox is getting some drastic changes, but not entirely bad ones. I want my gaming experience to be new and innovative, not just the same thing with better hardware.