In terms of friends on Live, I think that they have to have been on your list for at least 30 days.
Microsoft have made a bit of a mess of this whole issue – Sony got masses of kudos for saying they weren’t doing DRM, then said that 3rd parties could introduce it if they so wished – MS seems to be on a similar path, with their system set up for DRM should a firm wish to opt in. I haven’t read the original article, but it was discussed on Ping.
http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/PingShow/Ping-180-Tech-Ed-Xbox-One-Windows-81-Bing-Translator

Same here. My personal feeling is that, if you are going to upgrade every chance you get, you may as well alternate between OSeseses (unless you’re moving from a low end device, in which case go wherever).
I daren’t even go inside phone stores at the moment. Can’t afford to get arrested for running off with the One.

Right now, I’m running a Lumia 800. I love Windows Phone, but the existence of Vice City on Android means that I’m heading back that way for my next device (along with the fact that I want to play with Android again).
I’ll be honest, thanks to my network going rotten this year, the shortcomings of Windows Phone are exposed – on a high speed network, it’s on par (fast updating of feeds etc), but on slower network speeds, it doesn’t play ball where Android would update in the background. Although I’m off to what appears to be a faster service which would suit WP, Nokia just handed the best WP device (as far as I know, the 925 32Gb) to the network I cannot wait to leave (Vodafone).
Just waiting to hear confirmations on HTC One Max and Galaxy Note III…

Frankly, sir, you’ve won this one.

It’s more the internals – my first 360 decided it didn’t need to be able to connect to my TV anymore, and although I was quite happy to obtain a replacement, I’ve never felt all that confident in its robustness.

I have to be honest, the look is growing on me. At the reveal, it was a bit underwhelming, but it’s striking me as being just right that little bit more each time I see it.
A part of me doesn’t think I’ll go next gen, but at the same time, I’ll hold off Watch Dogs just in case I pick one up.

Believe me, I understand that, but personally, the fact is that, if I go next gen, the machine(s) will be alongside some rather large big brothers that don’t look like they belong together.
Although, since my 360 is the Mk1 shape, I wouldn’t mind replacing it with the new version.

Next to the original PS3, I can’t say that this really appeals in that kind of way. Like the One, it feels like an attempt to blend in with high end kit, to attract people that are looking for something to enter into their home cinema rig (I compare the One, visually, to Naim and Nad, the PS3 feels more like Cyrus or perhaps Rega).

I hate to say this, since I like a lot of what Microsoft does, it’s just that a few of the things that they bring to market (Kin being the main example) is a response to a section of the market that then goes in a different direction (with Kin, it was felt that there was a need for a socially connected mobile – unfortunately, smartphones became far more affordable than they had in the past, negating the need). Hot swapping games would have been a spectacular notion years ago – even instantaneous cartridges required switching off – but the load times are not as bad anymore. As far as I’m concerned, when I play a game these days, I’m on it for a while and it’s rare I have more than one game on the go these days, so the disc swap is a very low percentage of my playing time.

After sitting through both companies’ events via liveblogs, it felt like it went Sony’s way, just over price and DRM. Neither co hit with any games that grabbed me and said ‘OWN ME’.
I do wonder if there are device makers out there (Gamestick, Ouya etc) wondering if they should have gone all out – when the excitement comes from stuff we already know about, so far Watch Dogs has my attention more than anything else, it’s not great news.
Also, I have to say that Polygon attracts a decent crowd of commenters. The responses here are genuine, not chest beating nonsense.

I hate to admit that I had that annual.

I haven’t got anywhere near as much a beef with platform exclusive content as I do with that which depends on the version of the game I buy, or where I got it from. Intrigued by Watch Dogs, but not too thrilled that it looks like I have to hand over double the price of the game to get the most complete version (DEDSEC) on the current gen – notice on Amazon that there is only one option for One/PS4, so do these have the limited edition content as standard?

Reading The Verge’s liveblog earlier, I was all set to dismiss Ryse as God of War minus the monsters – whilst it still feels like that, the negative attitude has lessened after seeing the game moving. The QTEs look more like they are there to act as a ‘smartbomb’, a means to get out of one of the worst aspects of the melee game, which is the woeful cycle of enemy attack-reaction-recovery animation-enemy attack when overwhelmed – whilst a hardcore gamer may let that slide as being part of the territory, the more casual gamer may just feel like they splashed out on the wrong game.
My big questions are how linear does the game feel, and will the gameplay be varied enough to be up to pulling off the story?

I didn’t even consider the digital side, very much a luddite on the console front with downloads (although Vice City and Journey had a very warm welcome to my PS3’s hard drive).
I’m guessing the consoles will have that sorted – but whilst I get the desire to prevent piracy, it’s a lot like having to sit through the anti piracy ads on discs that you can’t skip – I abide by the law, and I’m the one getting lectured?

I just can’t understand it – the show looks great, the action is really well done. Fans seem to be responding positively…
So Red Fly responds by dumping the look, dumping the music and from what I can tell, they seem to be avoiding anything regarding voices. Exactly what are they doing, given that Nickelodeon has bought the rights lock, stock and barrel (actually, what are Nick doing allowing it to hit this stage?). To my (admittedly jaded) eyes, the turtle designs aren’t interesting – I’ll give them props for going real, but the appeal is lacking. If the game is there, they’ll sell to the gamers, but selling the game to fans of the show may not be as easy. It all feels like a waste of the property, although a disc based game could well be in the offing that fits the show perfectly and leaves me floored, desperately awaiting its release.

I’m not sure if the Steambox is the solution to the issues that the Xbox One (What is that name? I cannot think of anything that won’t sound pretentious) and PS4 are trying to be seen as addressing, but it is the one that has made the most sense so far. Okay, we know more, such as it stands, about the competition, but at least it’s online for the actual purchase of games part of the deal.
If they want to profit from the used games market, without creating a minefield for themselves, Microsoft and Sony would be able to argue a more realistic business case for investing in time travel than what is doing the rounds at the moment, and if they want to talk piracy, then perhaps they should have thought of that before slapping optical disc drives in their consoles in the first place (sorry, this is something that has bugged me for years in the home cinema field – moan like hell about piracy, then jump on every low cost, widely available, increasingly easy to copy home format imaginable – they should have pushed laserdisc or whatever the hell that Hitachi thing was back in the 80s).

SPLITTER!

It is an amazing prize, and yet at the same time, for the observer, it’s pretty much the same as someone winning the lottery.
Unless Godus turns out to be on a whole new level of awesome, it just feels even more sensationalised now.

I’ll admit, it’s something that used to grind with the current consoles as well – shuffling through settings, pics, music and videos to get to games seemed abnormal, but given how much use my PS3 gets (and 360 used to) as a dvd/blu player, it’s something that has been accepted as going with the territory.

Went with PS3…

I bought a Wii on day one – thought it was the best machine ever, played Twilight Princess (1st and only Zelda game I’ve completed), Red Steel and Sports until my arms ached (actually the lactic acid was down to the later purchase of Raving Rabbids). Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3 (major disappointment – a 12 month delay resulted in a game that looked no better, and compared to its predecessors was tiny). Good machine, but the games lineup failed to inspire after a while. I stopped playing Mario Galaxy to go through Mass Effect, which brings us to…

Xbox 360. I’m on my second, having disposed of the Wii to pay for a replacement after the 4 quad separation of your graphics connection failure that didn’t qualify as RROD (yet it’s an actual red ring of death, hmmm). I’ve been through the 4 Halo games (and ODST), Half Life 2, GTA IV, the L4Ds, maybe the most fun I’ve had gaming bar GTA:VC and SA. I don’t play on it so much now, but that’s more because I’ve been playing catchup on the PS3. I find it to be a great games machine, but the multimedia limited.

PS3 – it’s my freeview box, DVR, games machine, and for a while my local storage for videos and music. No shortage of good games (in fact I’ve disposed of Xbox versions of games to take advantage of extras on PS3, Bioshock 1, the classier look of the GTA IV complete collection, Dead Space…) If mine had backwards compatibility, I would give it console of all time, but it don’t. So I won’t. To add to its cool factor, I can easily transfer music/photos/videos to and from memory cards, which was most welcome a couple years back when I won a Galaxy S – couldn’t do that with a 360! So PS3 for the win – no other games console would let me play Vice City, watch a video file of Wakko’s Wish, listen to podcasts that I had downloaded to a phone and transferred, and then play Dragon’s Dogma until some ungodly hour.

Dear god, don’t ask about 1.

I can’t say I love the design, but I understand it – almost everything I’ve heard seems to treat the current level of home entertainment console integration as a sidenote (offline gaming, tv watching, locally stored collection). Dare I say, Microsoft right now just aren’t interested in getting the attention of gamers – the announcement of a new machine was going to bring that demographic along, regardless. The design of the Xbox One (I cannot for the life of me understand the name) looks like it’s trying to invade a further market. Check out hifi/home theatre equipment from a company like Linn or NAD; it’s understated (the NAD gear is satisfyingly so to my eyes).
I’m not saying that the One is as well put together as high end equipment – without a price, or seeing the Xbox for myself, I cannot say – but I believe that they are hoping for people to supplement or replace such items with it.

The last few years have been weird in terms of game pricing. In the UK, the supermarkets have become far more aggressive in their pricing (Tesco even had the nerve to moan about low prices, despite their being a major factor in their exisiting in the first place). Whether it’s the recession or competition, game prices are falling through the floor in the UK. We’re already seeing God of War 4 and Tomb Raider for platinum money.
I can’t see this approach being too helpful, MS will probably end up feeling compelled to step in.

I wouldn’t be surprised.

Just the look of the game is enough to gain interest, the thought of Ico meets Secret of Nimh is extremely tantalising (maybe a bit of Dark Crystal in there as well).
Damn it all, I didn’t pay enough attention to this – will be from now on.