Options, man!  Options!

-You can play the entire game without a TV by just using the Pad:  "Oh, but the Pad is so small!", you say.  True but you hold it closer to your face and the picture is crystal clear.  I jumped on it last night while my kid played Castle Crashers on the 360.  I killed 4 people in a matter of seconds (a big deal, for me) and had a positive Kill/Death ratio.  Never felt unnatural!

-Motion Controls:  People that have played Killzone 3 with a PS Move controller (like me!) can testify- in the hands of a pro, motion controls almost feels like cheating.  It's just point and kill.  Haven't tried it, yet but I will.  Hope it works as well as it did in KZ3!

-Classic fans can use the Pro Controller:  Set it up fro classic controls and it's just like old times.  After about thirty minutes of getting used to it, I was good to go!

-No Nuketown/Stats about how many kills CoD Players have built up/News updates or any of that other stuff that 360 COD fans get:  Wait....forget I said that!

-Nobody uses a Mic.  No whiny babies and 12 year olds like on Xbox Live!  So what if your partner doesn't tell you there are three guys camping in that room?  You're a grown man.  You don't need somebody holding your hand!

-Highest resolution of the home consoles at 60 FPS!

-Free online!!

-Quick customization using the touch screen--it's more helpful than you think!

-No Achievements/Trophies mean one less reason to play the campaign mode that you don't give a damn about!

-We're having a Street Fighter rematch on the 3DS, dammit.  Nobody has EVER beaten me that badly!

Source? I haven't seen any indication about the PS4 being launch before the next xbox. The only things that have been mentioned about the PS4 are rumored specs...nothing more. We have heard more about the next xbox outside of rumored specs.

I think it is almost certain the main highlight of Sony's next console (PS4 / Orbis) will be something close to MiiVerse. Some people will ignorantly claim "copied" without realizing that Sony is already 50% with what they did on the PS-Vita with the Game Activities which is similar to the Game Communities in MiiVerse.

Why would it be the main highlight? Well in 7 days on the market, NSMBU has 40k+ posts and these can have their own comment chains within. Nintendo Land has even more. Lots of games have 5k+ posts and nearly all of them have 1k+

Heck the YouTube, Amazon Instant Video, and Hulu Plus communities are just 2-3 days old and already have 1k+ posts each. How many posts per day does VGChartz get as something accessible by anybody with a browser and internet connection?

How many posts for a specific game does Gamefaqs get? Anyway, there is no point debating this... whomever uses the Wii U will get spoiled by MiiVerse and want it something like that on othre consoles and as I said Sony already went in that directly partly with Vita and now has a successful model to follow on top of which they may make even more improvements.

Microsoft is hard to judge on this because their recent efforts have put more focus on Advertizing taking up screen real-estate than "connecting" gamers or providing informational services or community features.

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Having Nintendo IP games in HD is a really long-overdue thing and worth the wait or otherwise, everybody should be glad it is here. Nintendo has amazing developers, designers, artists, and how their games look really amazing rather than carrying that sting of SD graphics. Once you get spoiled to HD, it is really hard to go back to SD and not be put off by the poor graphic standard.

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Gamepad as a game changer? It increases the arsenal of control possibilities on Nintendo console. They have Gamepad, Pro Controller, WiiMotionPlus + Nunchuk which naturally support wide range of possible gameplay design scenarios. I have already played games where I felt the Gamepad makes a significant enough difference.

Best question to ask yourself

If Gamepad type tablet controller (basically Pro Controller with Screen in Middle, Camera's built in, NFC, Mic & Stereo Speakers) was optional and cost $100 extra, would you buy it? What if it was $50 extra? What if it was the only way to play a few specific game designs that can't be done without it? What if the improvement to some of your favorite game genre/franshises was significant?

I can tell you that I feel Darksiders 2 is better on Gamepad. I also think Assassin's Creed 3 is better on Gamepad. Batman I am not sure on yet because there are things I like but there are times when I feel it makes already complicated game more complicated. Black Ops 2 I think is a wash because WiiMotionPlus + Nunchuk has some key advantages while Gamepad has less minor advantages of it's own.

I can also tell you that having your own screen instead of split-screen is something I would prever 100% of the time... even if I have to buy controller with screen in it. The Wii U is awesome console for local multiplayer and in the case of Black Ops 2, for online as well supporting the split-screen of two players going online each with their own screen while being in same room on same machine.

I don't think there's going to be a PS4 until 2015.  I'm just posting it now because I want to have a record of it when I refer back to this post years from now.

I think Nintendo have been a bit more intelligent with the WiiU so it should still get half-decent ports regardless of power. They've got a decent enough GPU with modern shader architecture that will make porting a bit easier. If the Wii had a GPU with programmable shaders then I think we would have seen more ports even with the mass power differences.

The main question will be if the CPU will be enough for said ports (this will effect certain genres more than others) or if the RAM will not detrimentally affect RAM heavy games that the likes of Bethesda will want to make. We've already had the lead programmer of 4A complain about the WiiU CPU and that's about game being developed for 360/PS3.

So I think it will depend on the developer and the way they set their engine up but it'll probably require developers a lot of work to port games to WiiU if rumours about the other consoles are to be believed. PS4 and Next Xbox on the other hand will likely share ports fairly easily if the X86 and RAM rumours prove to be true.