By force? Yeah, I'm sure MS were really holding a gun to your head....  The Xbox one's also worked when not online but had less functions... Like a phone or laptop. How is your phone not always connected? Clearly, the xbox one wasn't for you. You're 1 person on this site that clearly has a legitimate reason for not wanting it and not just bitching about an online device on an online device.

By force I mean that check thingy every 24 hours, without that I can't even play Single Player games. I can play Single player games on my laptop, even when it's not connected. And no, my smartphone really is not online 24/7. If I'm on the go, it's offline, as I don't need internet on the go, so I don't pay for it. Imagine a 24 hour check. As soon as I'm gone from home for more than a day my phone doesn't work anymore? Like, doesn't let me use the apps that I bought the device for? Come on.

Also, Smartphones and PCs are a whole other concept than a console. But I really see no point in discussing this further, as there is no more a device with such crazy politics. 

The first party studio thing is not true. Sony is down to 13. Microsoft has over 20.

If the information the OP provided is true all that would have been done long before PS4 was the motivation.

Ofcourse there is more into it, as it is in PS4. What both didn't talk about until now and perhaps never will is the security sub-system which again will also be implemented in hardware. So more silicon but nothing that will add more performance.

Lot's of craziness there. Enough smoke to not write any of it off though.

So what would this change in the minds of the vocal internet gamer? Not much. Emotional attachments to the 'superiority of the PS4' are deeply entrenched in many at this point.

It would cause a alteration to the talking points. Any perceived spec of superiority will be championed as the most important spec to consider, the alleged superiority of the SCE studios will be sang from the mountaintops (despite a lack of announced games), the $100 price difference will be made into the key differientiater (and, tbh, for some it WILL be) and Kinect being forced on X1 buyers will be mockingly flung for the entirety of the generation.

So the system war battles will continue unabated, just like the donkey's vs. elephants. My hope is that spec talk will gravitate more to actual GAME talk since the supposed spec superiority of the PS4 will no longer be such a bragging point for the most obnoxiously vocal gaming fanbase on in the internet. Because, in the end, games are what we're supposed to be here for, right?

You can't compare a 24 hour check on devices that could be considered necessary to some in phones for communication and laptops for work... Also, they don't have 24 hour checks. Do you travel a lot? Obviously gaming on a console would be difficult no matter the console. If not, portable consoles wouldn't exist. The 24 hour check is forced if you buy the console... Again, no gun to your head mate. You'll need to crop the quote tree for the conversation... I'm on my phone!

I thought whos stronger than who didnt matter anymore?

They are launching head to head. Sony scared the shit out of Microsoft when they released their specs. There were rumors in march that Microsoft was angry with AMD because they had inferior specs to Sony when they expected it to basically be equal.

Yeah... like the 12GB of RAM on Xbox One.

Lately some users on internet are getting pretty delusional.