This here, is quite the entertaining little console war going on in this thread. I strongly suggest people happening upon this comment at the top (newest first) scroll down to see what I'm talking about. Just to throw my own opinion out there so it can flop around like a dying fish while you guys harpoon it and fight over its eyes, Microsoft knew what it was doing as far as finally bringing sorely, badly needed and long overdue online-centric consumer policies to consoles... it just seems they massively, completely cocked up presenting it in a clear, logical, and positive way to consumers at large. I'm fairly sure it's already been pointed out that Steam wasn't popular as soon as it waltzed into the market. But its policies and clear respect for its consumers, as everyone knows, have paid off for Valve in spades, and it's a clear indication (among other examples of online, cloud-based media services) that consumers are definitely willing to switch to the digital future as long as policies are clear, respectful, and of course the platform provides a convenient experience for purchasing and enjoying content (consoles are designed to make gaming more convenient as opposed to PCs, so it's not a stretch to figure a console manufacturer should know this). I mean, seriously, I'm not even a MS fanboy, but to give you an idea of how stupid MS must be to have failed so badly on this... think of all of the positives of their massive server and cloud-based integration of games. What's that? You can't think of them? That's right, because everyone was yelling so loudly about the negatives. Nobody even remembers what we stood to lose when MS reversed policies, right? Like... what about the game-sharing functionality? I could just straight up have a friend of mine across the fucking country download and play one of my games when I wasn't playing them, absolutely free. Steam... hell, any kind of platform doesn't even let you do that kind of shit. That feature alone made the $100 extra on the price for the One seem paltry. And throwing in the feature where all my games and their respective save states, now in the cloud tethered to my gamertag, can be on my friend's console when I visit just by walking in and logging in with my profile? A truly convenient alternative to lugging my games and memory to my buddy's console, a luxury I would easily pay good money for, that I could have only on this console? Good God, it's like the second coming! They were totally right to say that their console wasn't overpriced. It's not (or now, I'd say wasn't) in the slightest. Because they were dedicated to delivering unique experiences and features like that. For once, I began to see the light of referring to my games and their distribution as providing me with a service, and not a mere product. What's that? You want to own your games? Tell that to everyone with a Steam library. Fuck that. We hardly own anything anymore. In the ever-approaching full-on digital future, expecting to truly own your games is like thinking you own the water that comes out of your faucet. Either MS are massive pussies for backing down from what they thought would ultimately be better for its consumers, or they're massive dunces for failing to sell this future to them. Ultimately the result of our little consumer "victory" is that as far as we know, the so-called next-gen consoles are going to be a lot like the last-gen. Nothing much is really going to change besides... graphics. Yeah. Way to fucking go, guys. This whole ordeal stinks to high heaven of lilly-livered dicks flopping around having no damn idea what they're doing... MS for not having the foresight to get totally and completely behind these new policies and clarifying and leveling any consumer doubts, and the fickle consumers who have riled around trying to prevent things from changing. Fucking stupid.

I hope Jim Carrey gets his job!!

Jim Carrey ? Noooo! :D

I want Phil Spencer to fill his space. Or they can hire John Richetello. Always felt like he was genuine.

Looks like don mattrick made xbox into a flop. Microsoft stocks are going down so get out while you can. Xbox games are still gonna be expensive as hell. More read: www.topgamehax.com

I believe you don't really understand the share market as: microsoft shares are currently down about 4 - 6% winthin last two weeks but are up about 15 - 20% in the past 3 months.

Actually, they are within a few cents from a 10 years highest point. MSFT stock is in great shape compared to January.

Honest question: How much of that was wall street hype from the run-up to Win8.1?

Very proud of my self. When I saw the 1st poster I immediately thought "Zynga" :D

Shitting on the military while COD is the best selling franchise and your average gamer thinks he is a marine because he/she has logged 10+ hours online. Brilliant. Then again, I may take offense at someone ragging on farmers because of my recent time spent playing Animal Crossing so.....

Or you may actually show interest in things like furniture or want to live the life of a burly lumberjack, maybe.

*looks at room My god......Where did that Metroid and Yoshi egg come from??

Thanks for the laugh, Coop! #6 for me is the crux of the issue. The things I own, don't own me...being fortunate enough to live in an industrialized nation, I have no shortage of entertainment options available to me, and ergo don't have to agree to needless shackles in exchange for entertainment. Games aren't only competing with each other, they're also competing with movies, music, books, paintball, board games, and even going outside on a nice day. The more hoops I'm expected to jump through, the more likely I am to say 'this is too much like work' and go do something else instead. It's why I left PC gaming behind ~6 years ago...driver headaches, the upgrade treadmill, more and more invasive copy protection, PC gaming became more trouble than it was worth, so I washed my hands of it and got a 360. I still dabble from time to time, when a good exclusive [or multiplatform that necessitates KB/M] hits...but my PC isn't the time sink it used to be. As a game console...if I can't plug it in, connect it to a TV, put the disc in, and play the game right then and there...you're making me work too hard. I get what MS was going for. With a less pants-on-head implementation, it might have even worked. But they forgot the single most important part of the console/PC divide: Consoles trade horsepower and flexibility for convenience...and as MS found out the hard way, anyone that makes an inconvenient console is inviting disaster.

I know it was coming it was the only reason I was going to PS3... Telling people if they don't have internet get an xbox 360.... Fools I tell you.

There was never any "used game blocking" and the 24-hour checkins were for a good reason and were something 99% of people would forget about the next day. Xbox one is and always has been the better console without question. It's unfortunate that a huge step towards the future of gaming and entertainment was given such a bad rep by pure PS4 fanboyism and widespread misinformation.

So I take it you like your corporations and governments spying on you and selling your private info?

My money's on being paid for the comment. Only comment on the account, account created 2 minutes before the post, and manages to pack a surprising amount of marketing talking points into 3 short sentences.