But, again, this doesn't benefit their customer. Or perhaps I should say, it doesn't benefit their customers who don't derive enjoyment or some lame sense of self worth from being able to play games before other people.

Because you aren't getting to play a game any earlier than you would otherwise. Other people are just being forced to wait longer. And the money that Microsoft could invest in creating their own truly exclusive new games ("over $1 billion investment in next gen game development!!!!!1111") goes instead to cockblocking people who choose to play on other platforms.

Again, I must retort that as a Xbox gamer, it does benefit me. It differentiates my purchase from theirs. And when they get it, I will laugh that they got it so late while I am playing something more current. And these aren't even exclusives, but multiplats that MS turns into an exclusive...for a period of time. 

Paying millions to give me the first class treatment while punishing the other guys who purchased the wrong console.... as a Xbox gamer I got no complaints and MS has my thanks.

The bolded is exactly my point. It doesn't benefit you as the value offered by the Xbox doesn't increase in real terms. Microsoft isn't investing in improving their product, they are investing in degrading the other guy's product. That is not a practice that gamers should champion.

Corporate cheerleaders and people who want to see other people punished for "buying the wrong console", on the other hand... yeah.

By degrading the competition it in fact elevates my console as a result. Its a practice that the winning gamer should champion.

Gamers by nature have short spans. They play a game for a few weeks and move on to the next, with exceptions offcourse. To secure a game for 6 months or a full year......that's pretty much the equivalent of an exclusive.

But yes, it is a punishment, and given enough punishments, maybe they will see the light and buy a X1....it really is a great console :)

Lol @ Microsoft being the Apple of video gamez.

That's like saying that life in Iran is getting better because life in North Korea is getting even worse. The quality of life in Iran is what it is regardless of whether or not the Norks are starving to death en masse.

But I think I'll stop here. Your corporate enthusiasms - which I could understand if they were paying you instead of the other way around - hurt my head and make me sad.

Well thats just not accurate to compare. They aren't neighbours and don't compete with eachother in terms of their economy.

It would be accurate to say that a Oil Company decides to go to countyr A. and process the oil for a year, making themselves and the local government rich in the process. Then after a year, they sell some of that oil to some other country that needed it but had to wait. One country made a lot of money, the other had to wait and will make less money.

Didn't you get the memo? The new name is now Sony VGC. /s