I understand what you're saying.  I want a 3DS but when I think of some of the posters here, the way they make angry, bitter little posts like yours for no reason at all, it makes it really, really hard to pull the trigger.  Oh, and I especially don't want to wear a tinfoil hat.  That looks is so beat-up.  And the non-stop Vita trolling, that's annoying.  And the crazy hyper-defensiveness.

Damn.  

Nope, that's a PS4 exclusive. And after that awful Gamescom it looks like the only one we've got, so I wouldn't be so quick to disown it.

OP, that is some grand insight and formulation, right there. Good job.

1)  That depends on personal taste and is true of every console.

2)  That's probably true.  Even if PSN and LIVE were exactly equal, some would believe otherwise.  However, LIVE is the much more dangerous ecosystem.  It's absolutely filled with predators and social engineers.  Because of the way Microsoft links accounts across services, a Microsoft account can be a valuable thing to steal and sell.  Grab your info off facebook, keep calling until you can trick a support rep, and bam.

3)  This one kind of makes me chuckle.  I'm sure it's true, but as someone who has been playing since the Atari joystick, you could tape some buttons to a cat and I'd still play the hell out of it.  All the controllers now are good.  The games are far more important.

As for the last question, no, I don't think anyone thought that.  People stick to what they know and have invested time in.  Most people aren't going to give up their friends list and achievements and just start over.

That's kind of what I was thinking, if you start with a statement that is stupid on its face it's easy to disprove it, but I'm not sure anyone has actually ever said that seriously.  

very few ps2 owners were loyal to sony in the last gen transition. very few 360 owners (or ps3 owners for that matter) will be loyal to MS (or sony) either.

...a vast majority of console owners aren't fans of the system for rather fans of games (including 3rd parties). they have no loyalties and will go where the games go and will go to the system that provides the best value proposition.

MS, Sony, and Nintendo can probably count on ~15M sales in loyal fans. everyone additional sale is up for grabs to the best product on the market.

The short answer is NO.

Too many people who aren't gaming nerds that could give a shit about anything M$ or Sony have said up until 2-3 weeks before launch. Very few people will even be aware of the 180's by then. It will come down to marketing/launch titles and the demo units at the stores. Unless the PS4 can visibly demonstrate a difference right away, the "perceived" power advantage for the PS4 will only be in the fanboy heads.

True, it was mostly the Xbox One that converted the Xbox fans

Ps4 better than xbox one. The exclusives games on xbox one only FPS game ( Halo, Gear of War ) and always likes that. Ps4 otherwise have more vary games and RPG.
Forza Motor Sport will not help sinces Gran Turismo gonna crush it.
Besides of that Microsoft make blunder about "must online checking" and copyright issue. Even they already cancel it but this foolishness sure make a lot of people dissapointed.

I don't know if the people who buy ps2 and didn't buy a ps3 goes to xbox if it's the case i expect that this people will back to ps4