I was on vacation with no internet access for a week and am watching these e3 conferences and their fallout for the first time today, so forgive me with chiming in a bit late.

Yes you are late, and yes we will forgive you.

In terms of the e3 presentations and what was shown:

What has Sony added to the new console aside beefing up the specs? Sony's console strategy is seriously starting to lag at this point and time. For 3 generations now they keep doing the same things console after console.. just beef up the specs and provide a current staus quo and boom, they’re done. Whilst Microsoft has been the trailblazer, taking risks and bringing new things to the console market. This forces Sony to have to patch things on the go in order to compete and always remain a step behind(or several steps).

Soooo, Remote play, digital content sharing being available on PS3 since it launched, gameplay streaming via share button on controller, being the first to use bluray as standard all don't count as innovative? I'd say they do since they were doing that before MS.

When Microsoft introduced standardized multiplayer gaming on consoles and started charging for Xbox Live Gold, people criticized it, claiming it will fail. But now Sony is going by the same route and charging money for PSN+ in order for multiplayer. How are gamers and media not bitching about this btw?

No one was complaining about XBL. In fact it is the reason the 360 did so well out of the gate. After it made its debut on XBOX it was just a hit. No denying it was ahead of Sony's PSN but, Sony did offer Home, granted its not that great IMHO but it was a risk for sure. Also PS+ has always cost money. They have just decided to make online play a part of that service. Yeah for those who never took advantage of PS+ might be miffed but those of us who have been using it since day one know its totally worth it and  amuch better deal than XBL. Besides it was inevitable, PSN as whole was free for damn near 7 years and will remain so for PS3 users. Its just for those of us early PS4 adopters who will need it.

Then again when Microsoft Introduced Xbox live arcade and XNA for indie developers, people said it will fail... but now Sony is grabbing Indie developers any way they can. Consistently Sony incompetence and lack of foresight means they have to always play catch up and are behind.

XNA is dead plain and simple. Say what you want but Sony has changed the game and is taking yet another risk by betting on indies. They are bucking the industry trend by doing what? Oh only allowing indie devs to keep more of their money by not requiring them to aquire a publisher. SO as time has gone on MS says we are staying the same while Sony is saying okay how do we get more indie devs.

We are again seeing something new on home consoles from Microsoft...cloud computing, digital gaming library, digital game sharing, HDMI passthrough and possibly many more features to come...which everyone on the internetz is claiming will fail. All while the greatest strengths for the competition are all based on the current gaming standards. Hmm... 

The HDMI pass though is a nifty feature I will agree but it is not worth the price of entry. Also, Sony INTRODUCED cloud services for consoles. They are planning on releasing popular PS3 titles on Gaikai and allowing developers to use cloud computing on the PS4. Digital gaming libraries have been available on both systems already (doesn't matter how the interface looks or how they are accessed other than per personal taste) and those of us who used a PS3 know that it has allowed content sharing since the console launched back in 2006. Granted it used to be up to 5 different PS3 systems and has since dropped to 2 but stioll it has been there.

The ONLY thing NEW that MS is doing that Sony is not is preventing you from owning your purchased discs. They aren't blocking used games or rentals. They aren't requiring you to check in every 24 hours or hourly away from home.

 They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different outcome.

Yes that is what they say. But they also say : "a fool and his money are soon parted." and you sir are a fool.

Ouch, that gives me 1.6 mbps down and 789 kbps up on my 40 mbps connection. Although that is from my laptop with wireless b/g low signal strength. Speed test reports 3.4 down, 2.0 up.

On my wireless-n laptop it gets 18.5 down, 1.7 up, versus Speedtest 24.6 down, 2.16 up.

Wifi is the bottleneck. My WiiU hardly stays connected in the living room, downloads take forever. I'm not ready for a digital future until they make better wifi routers and receivers. (And get rid of bandwidth caps)

I got 31.3 mbps download and 1.8 mpbs upload.

The competition is in the games. This hardware shit you're harping on is crap. None, and I do mean _NONE_ of the hardware is innovative. It's all been done before one way or another. Each of the 3 are just picking up ideas that have been talked about before and making them slightly better. None of that matters.

Do they have good games? Do they have enough first party and third party support? Can they make profit enough?

The End.

It is because 20Mbits = 2.5Mbytes... your download is inline with your connection.

Thanks for your bizarre, revisionist viewpoins.

I dont recall a lot of what you said ever happening so must presume you had your vacation in an alternate universe.

I do agree that Sony do shamelessly lift ideas from competitors. However its rare you see adopting a winning idea described as incompetent.

I also agree they boost their specs periodically but if thats what their core audience demands its hardly a mis step.

The Xbox Ones digital strategy coupled with its Jack of All Trades, Master of None market appeal will cause it to fail.

Dont forget in Microsofts second biggest market Europe its launching a near crippled product missing a large part of its promised feature set.

That's it, I'm convinced. Xbone is going to take out this coming generation with 80% market share. All hail our new gaming overlord.

Oh and I think multiplayer behind the paywall is arse, you won't catch me defending it. IN fact I might just not be reading the right posts, or visiting the right threads but I haven't seen many Sony fans saying that their all fine and at peace with MP behind the paywall. They're resigned to I would say. But I was already committed to getting PSN+ on PS4 BEFORE they announced the multiplayer thing, because of the fact that I'll be buying 12 games per year for the price of 1 1/2 games. That's unbeatable value. And as the generation progresses the monthly "free" games will get better and better. Also there's no hypocrisy in saying it was a deal breaker when choosing between PS3 and Xbox360 and now committing to buying PS4. After all it's not like you can go to Xbone and play online with XBL Silver. So all that's left is Wii U. Obviously for the vast majority MP behind the paywall isn't quite enough to go Wii U only, and for me Wii U was only ever an option if Sony went all DRM up in my shit, which they didn't. Still if I'm a multi-console guy with Wii U and PS4 and I was into online MP then every multiplatform game with online I want to play I'd get it on Wii U because I support free online play.

Sony was being a bit of a dick saying they're dropping online pass as the trade off for paid online play. Dropping online pass does nothing for the person who buys a game new so that was really disingenuous and I didn't like them using that as an excuse.

So there's no getting around the fact that I'm disappointed Sony's taken that step. I don't know why online play on PC can be free and of good quality, but on Xboxes and now on PS4 it can't be that way, I've never seen a satisfactory explanation for it. But that annoyance pales into insignificance when put up against the ruinous policies MS is introducing with Xbone. PS4 paid online play is like a small gravitational anomaly and Xbone DRM is like a supermassive, galaxy destroying black hole. PS4 paid online play is like a snail in my cabbage patch and Xbone DRM is like a plague of locusts. PS4 paid online is like the common cold and Xbone DRM is like an outbreak of Ebola virus.

Well, Sony Console has the developers like Santa Monica, Naughty dog, Media molecules, Guerilla Games, Quantic dream who provide different game experiences which is not possible in PC and online experience is not forever so only single player campaign is forever which can be experienced in Sony as they mentioned without restricrtions. I think you like short term fun from Online that's why metion about Mutiplayer issue becoz sony is charging now. Also remember sony is not doing for all games since they are giving free access many F2P games published by them.

True but the OP is pretending that Sony has never done anything right. They win 2 generations in a row. Microsoft has copied Sony this generation too(not as much but they have copied).

I win mwahahaha!

http://au.ign.com/articles/2013/06/17/oculus-rift-erotic-adventure-game-announced

edit: Take THAT console lovers, bet you can't get THIS on your beloved system! :)