And if the Sony third-party games started to sell better? I think the publishers will be happy too.

Too much going on today between the Apple keynote at WWDC, Xbox E3 and Sony E3, it was crazy busy day filled with announcements. Apple's press conference kind of distracted me from the E3 shows today. Honestly i'm more excited over the new ios 7, Mac OS X, and Macs than any anything.

But I will say that Microsoft won me over with the games today. Everybody wanted games and Microsoft brought the games. I was about ready to fall asleep about 15 minutes into the Sony press conference, so what does that tell you?  But I will still pick up a PS4 down the road and have all consoles.

Sony decided to start charging for playing online, and the playstation 4's most "exciting" feature is being able to lend games? "Killing it" has never been easier. I've been able to do that with every console I've ever owned. How about getting rid of online passes if you actually trust your consumers. As for the rest of the show, why were half the ps4 games shown multiplatform... Wasn't microsoft suppose to be the one doing that...

Though I do admit, the xbone's price is too high and it's drm policies are terrible and unclear about what happens in the long run. So despite having a much better E3 lineup, I am not too interested in it either. Haven't written off either console yet, but will definitely wait for a price cut or two.

The only console that had an all around great showing today was the playstation 3.  

Since Sony does not have DRM on their system, I am actually wondering what MS stragety to negate that advantage.  Will it be business as usual.  Will MS and publishers charge less for taking away game ownership.  Will games become cheaper faster on the X1 due to DRM or will nothing really change on MS console besides you cannot do what you want with your purchase.  I am curious what MS respond will be to Sony conference on the matter.  This might be the beginning of something really interesting or it could be MS coming out with a new console in 3 years ;)

You need to remember that Xbox One got all of those third parties because they sold out their gamers to drm and anti piracy measures. EA and Activision think that if we can make Microsoft succeed with DRMs then next generation the other two will join them. That is all that is going on here, if you don't want DRM to spread you have to stop it now.

Another point is that a lot of the times, people buy used games as used because they had so-so scores.  I bought Nights: Journey into Dreams for the Wii for like 10-20 dollars, and I returned it the next day because it was so awful...  That game got too high of a score for what it was worth........

Microsoft would've won if they didn't have all the DRM/used game crap. They had the better conference games wise.

I don't feel bad for Microsoft but I feel bad for Xbox fans. It must be a very tough time to be an Xbox fan. They're gonna be the constant underdog all through the generation.

Microsoft will have a very successful platform with the XBox One. You need to be a child to not see that. They will sell well in North America, they will make money off Halo and Forza, they will endure easily for the coming gen, even competitively.

What just happened was that they were not offered the next gen on a silver platter. They have been offered the pole position after the XBox 360, same as Sony after the PlayStation 2, and decided to take very big leap of faith in trying to reshape an industry model that is right now very comfortable to everyone, one that focuses on the company's needs, real or fabricated. How that will pan out, it's anyone's guess.
What some people are forgetting though is that consoles have been, are and will continue to be TOYS. As many features as you want to cram in, they are essentially toys and the need for them will be driven by a younger generation, one that is already growing accustomed to not owning their content, to phone games that can't be traded, to micro-transactions as part of their normal gaming life. They won't care that they can't lend a game of CoD Ghosts to a friend because they'll play it multiplayer and each of them will already own it.

So no, I don't feel bad for Microsoft. They are far, FAR from being in a bad position, certainly not one that would prove problematic for them. Sony knows the market better than Microsoft outside of America and they have capitalized on that knowledge and on the growing anti-user fears. It has played out for them, for now, and it just remains to be seen if they can ride this wave as far as they can.

Also, I'm calling it now, Microsoft will not back out of ANY of the features announced for the XBox One. They certainly don't see Sony as a threat in this regard, same as they didn't see them as a threat with the free online play. Any weakness shown by Microsoft will only serve to hurt their stocks I imagine, so to all those that think they'll drop the DRM / No-used games scheme...you are very wrong, sorry.

Very sensible post.

I can see the "DRM" becoming an advantage of sorts in the future, feature wise, especially their commitment to a connected console which could mean some amazing features that Sony will now not be able to copy given their commitment to not having a connection requirement.  It all looks rosy at the moment for Sony but they may have just tied one hand behind their back for the rest of the gen or indeed have to admit they were wrong in a decision they made a couple of years down the line.  Microsoft have a tough job now to sell that their policy can be good for their consumers.

Comparing a $60 AAA gaming experience with a 99c app is probably the stupidist thing I've heard for a while.