I happened to study the subject a bit cause I was writing a brief article about the Epic/Apple Lawsuit. A big point of contention was whether the App Store is actually a market for anti-trust purposes. So I had to look into that issue a bit to write it. Pretty sure that XBox+Playstation can't be considered a market in itself.

As for derailing, it's fine. It's not like you have to be laser focused on exactly what the title says. Side conversations happen. Just has to still be reasonably tied to the topic at hand. 

I feel like they automatically trimmed down on the previous version of the site and I'm not used to doing it manually. My bad.

I know that I got mods message for "spamming report", basically the message said that if you reported one post in the thread you shouldn't report others because the moderation team would review THE WHOLE thread. So yep responding to him but not to the "salty" remarks seems in contradiction with the message I received from mod.

The very big difference as you rightly pointed is that there is a difference between what "market" considers a market, versus what a court would consider for anti-trust law. And even better put was that even though several of those products don't directly compete they are considered at least substitute products so for total market size they are considered (then sure we can slice and classify sub-markets or niches, even if the niche is 250M users).

But I addressed both of them in the post... didn't I?

The thing in this case was that the poster seemed to be complaining that someone was getting away with something... and the reason they had been getting away with it was because nobody had reported it and no mod had been checking in on this topic. But, once that post was reported, I did indeed go back and look at other posts, and addressed both issues.

Dunno what the other mod said... but this is a 15 page thread, so obviously I'm not going to read every single post that was made. But, I will go back as far as I feel is needed to understand the context of the conversation. Generally, that means I'll go back to the beginning of an interaction between two users, but possibly further than that. 

So, if multiple reports are made on things happening within one interaction, or within a couple of pages, that's probably unnecessary. If something is reported on page one, and then ten pages later in an entirely separate conversation, something else is reported, then that's probably fine. Just my opinion of course, I didn't consult with the mod team on this one. Maybe the other mods literally do read every post XD

Seriously though, last warning, anything further about moderation in a PM. 

Frustratingly, there really is no clear definition for what a market is. For a counter point, American Express was I believe ruled to have monopoly power over their "market" which was really just American express cards.

The difference in that case was though that it was restaurants suing American Express. If the restaurants stopped taking American Express cards, they would lose out on a huge amount of potential business. So, American Express was able to basically dictate terms, and the restaurants had no choice but to take it. Even though alternatives to American express existed, restaurants couldn't just say "well we're going to go with Visa now". Theoretically, the same claim could have been raised against Visa, so both could have had a monopoly on the market, or more accurately had monopoly power.

But, if it had been a consumer suing American Express for an anti-trust violation, they probably would have ruled that there was no monopoly, because the customer does have the option to just cancel their card and sign up with another company. American Express had monopoly power against vendors, but not against individual consumers.

Point being, it's complicated. I'm not an expert, but I think the best way to think of it is, does the company get to do what the fuck they want? If so, it's a monopoly in that context. If not, it's not.

Currently, I don't think either Microsoft or Sony could be said to have monopoly power. Neither one could do something crazy like jack up the price or force devs they don't own to only make games for them. Microsoft buying Bethesda wouldn't get them to monopoly power... But suppose Microsoft bough Activision, EA, Epic Games, and Nintendo tomorrow. Now you're getting close.

He isn't wrong on a technical standpoint per see, but yes he is just spinning off and sugar coating the fact that they didn't have ANY exclusives from first party for launch even though they bought plenty of studios and paid for some 3rd party exclusives (timed or not). This is the way of Phil, and depending on how you read he is saying a big F.U to costumers... not to forget in another interview he says consoles sales don't matter, even though they making cheaper entry level console, slashing price in Japan and Brazil say otherwise. I dunno why people when defending him ignores the moves done and focus only on whatever he say at that day.

What he is saying is we dont give a shit about our costumers , they will still buy it.

I just dont understand the excuses people make in the name of papa phill, dude does nothing, everyday what we see is him giving interviews with his made up nice guy persona to camouflage his incompetence in the things that are important , like you know, games...

2021 is much more important, that is a fact. Most launch titles are forgetable.However, a think having a big launch exclusive made from the ground up for the Series X would be a good way to show the costumers that they can be confident in the console. I'd rather have at least one game than nothing. Phil just can't admit they fucked up big time with Halo Infinite, so he has to pretend everything is fine, but I'm sure Microsoft knows they fucked up.

Xbox Series doesn't need a system seller in 2021 as well, by the looks of things.

My take.. maybe, maybe not.. but xbox isn't really in a position to play the waiting game this gen due to the drubbing they got last gen. yes, gamepass.. awesome, but still got drubbed overall by sony and ninty last gen, and not just by a little. Perception is key, as yes, third party can sustain between the droughts of first party stuff, but when you need to prove your first party stuff is worth buying their console for (and a new console) and you really have nothing to show, especially at launch.. that's going to play big into that perception.  And when you have the most powerful console but nothing that can show what a most powerful console can do.. 

Makes no sense to buy a shiny new box to continue to play stuff I can already play with what I already have. Xbox needed to ball out right out of the gate.. time will tell if this hurts the perception.

I agree that launch lineup doesn't matter, I disagree that Holiday 2021 is what's important. Imo Q1 and Q2 are by far the most important postlaunch months to maintain demand. Looks like Sony has them covered, but there's no word from MS on what killer apps they'll have for that period.

It's true that the Xbox was going to sell out 2020 regardless of launch lineup but maintaining momentum into the new years is important. You need consistent releases to maintain demand, Holiday 2021 is too long to wait, launch momentum won't keep you going a whole year.

By July 2021 the PS5 may have potentially already released Miles Morales, Demon's Souls, Sackboy, Destruction All-Stars, Returnal, Gran Turismo 7 and Ratchet & Clank.

PS5 is going to keep up it's momentum and keep demand high, Xbox by summer 2021 is easily going to have the capacity to produce far more consoles than demand requires.

Consistent Releases Matter.