Toby

I can't see myself choosing a PS3 just to play Blu-Ray movies only. Granted it's cheaper now than other blu-ray players, but I really don't want a Blu-Ray player with a bluetooth remote controller that doesn't interface with my existing equipment. Do I seriously want to go back to having multiple remotes? And what's with the curved top?

I think the best thing to do right now is wait until stand alone players are far cheaper.

You also missed some additional facts

Xbox 360 has 33 games which sold over 1 million copies
Wii has 17 games which sold over 1 million copies
PS3 has 7 games sold over 1 million copies

I don't see why BOTH formats can't have support. Why not publish for both?

The only reason there's consumer confusion is because you have some studios on one side and some studios on the other side.

By Warner dropping support for one, you have a media company telling consumers what to do, instead of allowing the consumers to decide. HD DVD was gaining momentum. And HD DVD players are still the cheapest to be found on the market. And there are more stand alone HD DVD players out there than stand alone Blu-Ray players. It's only because of the PS3, that there Blu-Ray players in total.

Warner didn't do anyone any favors by forcing matters.

I'm unclear why people think Blu-Ray is so great, outside of the extra disc compacity-- which is great. Every title that has been available for both formats, seems to be better or offer more features in HD DVD.

You conveniently forgot to mention Paramount's Iron Man movie.

It's just another social feature, not unlike Facebook or Twitter or what-have-you.

I don't see anything wrong with it, as long as you can control whether the feature is enabled or how it's enabled, which Microsoft has covered.

So if you wants people to see your friends list, they will, if you don't, they won't.

Just from a perspective of adding friends of friends, it does make it rather convenient.

I'm all for more social features. Bring em on Microsoft! I was rather bummed that Call of Duty didn't have an online site to check your challenges among friends. Now that would have been cool.

My best guess would be the Marvel property. It was one of the initial announcements along with the 360, but has barely been discussed since, and never really previewed.

In fact I was just thinking to myself last week, I wonder where it's at.

Unless it's... no, I don't even want to think about it.

I disagree about not enough people have a fast enough connection or hard drive space.

I'm downloading movies directly to my Tivo from Amazon unbox over a wireless connection, and also using streaming technology via Microsoft for downloading and viewing movies as they download on the Xbox 360 (that only goes up to 120GB)

My first concern when reading this is that I hope they're not pushing it out just to make the holiday. I'd much rather have a game that has been properly tested, and is released when fully ready. I don't want to purchase the game and be a beta tester.

Since this is a triple AAA title, I'd like to think that they're not rushing it, and it is, in fact ready.

If I'm not mistaken, the numbers weren't really meant for public consumption anyway. NPD tracks trends in various industries, compiles data, performs calculations, and then publishes a report meant for those in their corresponding industry, so they can have a handle on the market and base business decisions using the data.

The consoles manufacturers, on the otherhand, have their own data, because they know what they shipped.

Because of the internet, and blogging and other various sites, this data has found itself published for free. Some take this data and use it as if it were entirely accurate, when it's at best-- an educated estimate. I can see why customers of NPD might not be willing to purchase such data, if they can secure the same information for free via the same sites we visit.

In the grander scheme of things, does it really matter if we, as consumers, have this data? It is rather cool to know and all, but it doesn't really change my perception of what I enjoy.

I'm not sure you can fairly use this argument just against EPSN.

You can apply this logic to ANY television show available on iTunes. Why buy it when you can watch it for free when it originally airs?