@TheLastCamba I agree with the first part of your comment: yes the average consumer just either tries out a console in the shop or goes with the one that is the cheapest, or even goes by the exclusives. But, I disagree with the second half of your comment. You cannot state that all console gamers who use sites such as this one will have bought PS3 this generation as that is simply untrue. Even the "informed" gamers who use this site will have bought the console they desired based on specs, exclusives, cost and what the sales person in best buy or game or whatever shop managed to sell them.

Is it just me or does there seem to be a huge thing Valve has missed with all this steam box stuff? I mean I recently built a gaming rig for around £1000 and I can plug it directly into my TV using a HDMI cable no problem and play all my games on it not just ones compatible with Linux. So what I think they have missed is that, as previous posts have indicated, most PC gamers would build their own PC and still be able to do what this box can do or they buy a good/great prebuilt PC for less.

What is with all this hate towards the Kinect? I mean yeah it isn't perfect, but it is new technology so of course it is going to have bugs. But, that doesn't excuse the rampant and quite weird hatred many of you seem to have, as if a Kinect had personally insulted or harmed you.

I have used Kinect (don't own one though) and frankly it wasn't that bad. It wasn't as responsive as the Wii or Move but it is still an interesting innovation that no-one is forcing you to buy. Which is another reason why this hatred towards it confuses me, has Microsoft turned up in your house at 3am with a Kinect and a gun and told you, you have to have one or they will shoot your favourite pet, sibling, child etc.?

@martingaston @2bitSmOkEy It looks like he has just been arrested for something very embarrassing and that is his police mug shot before a night in the cells

@King9999 @3199eddie I see what you mean, but whenever a new game is being made the company making it swells its staff numbers, then when complete it shrinks them again. I would imagine most if not all lower level staff expect to be laid off at the end of a project due to this cycle. Again it is the same cycle present in any situation when a project is being done regardless of the industry. You also have to take into account the finances of the company itself; i.e. can it afford to keep a staff of say 150 people when not currently working on a project funded for that many?

I do agree that it isn't a nice situation to be in and sympathise with those affected, but it isn't fair to say it shouldn't happen in the gaming industry just because they make games as it is present in every industry and is generally accepted as what to expect by staff.

@King9999 Games are the same as any industry though so why shouldn't someone have to think that if they are part of a failed product that they may get fired? I mean I work in a shop selling mobile phones and I know that if the company isn't doing well or if I am not doing well then I may be fired for it, the games industry isn't and should never be any different.

@Gallowhand I am in the same position as you, although I submitted for a beta key when they first started taking sign-ups as I am curious to see if this could be the game to introduce me to MMOs in a good way. So far whenever I have looked at an MMO I have been put off as I like the way games like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls Series allow you to live your own life in the game world, while MMOs always seem to direct you to doing some menial dungeon crawl task with a bunch of other people and have no control over how any story arcs may develop. But, this may change my mind on that, only time will tell.

@Linaxel I totally agree, in fact it was what I was thinking when he said:

"What kind of sticker do you put on the box to warn a parent about that?"

It already has a sticker, as you said, 'M' for mature.

This all seems to be another case of people finding a reason to pass responsibility instead of taking control of the situation. Such a shame for America really, glad we don't have that as much here in the UK. But, no doubt David Cameron will jump on it for his next election campaign and blame the recession on video game violence.

@mrboone01 @Saladudo @Sekhemket That would also mean that the official copies of the games will have the same original load times as that of pirated games until patches are released. Thus rendering this entire system moot.

@u1tradt @patiotom All the rumoured specs for the PS4 are almost identical to the xbox 720 from the 8-core CPU to potential graphics cards. As for throwing a bunch of different "shit" into the console are you referring to software applications? Because the xbox 360 and PS3 all have the same kinds of media applications and media centric design so both of the next consoles will have similar (if not the same things).

I can understand not wanting to pay for xbox live, although in my experience it is extremely cheap and very stable while I have heard good and bad things about PSN, although I have never used it myself as I only own a xbox 360 so I cannot really comment on whether it is worth paying for XBL or not.

To be honest, in the end all we have is rumours so far so I will reserve judgement for when the final product is released and I recommend all other people do so as well as rumours are just that, rumours.