DenebSwift

I'm not a player, but I am an industry watcher. I have to say that after an already 8 month free play system, with what would likely be nearly a year post-launch before a pay system moving to a straight pay system sounds disasterous. They should seriously consider some sort of freemium model a this point. The 'free-play' cat is out of the bag, and they're going to have a very hard time convincing players who have stuck with them through the dregs of an 8 month open Beta launch that they should start paying now. It's a competitive market, there are other games, and people on the Internet generally don't like paying for things they used to get free. New players who somehow make it past the disaster of a launch with some interest may balk at paying if the older crowd didn't. Perhaps a freemium expansion?

Did anyone else have an issue with the Harleen Quinzel audio files in AA? I was a little disappointed that there was no differentiation in Harleen compared to Harley. On top of being a little too quick to fall for the Joker, she had all the same quirky speech mannerisms before as after. I seem to remember her origin making her more than just some dumb, idealistic, sing-songy med student.

There's a HUGE potential market for Gaikai - and it's wildly different than OnLive as it stands now. Gaikai is an attempt to allow instant access for demos of games as part of a marketing campaign. As of right now it's PC centric, but even then it's interesting. Imagine being able to play a demo of any game on Steam instantly, without an install. The marketing potential for indie and big time publishers is huge.
As a gamer, I'm cautiously optimistic that services like it could open up the range of demos available even on consoles in the future. I'd love opportunity to browse-play the PSN, XBLM and steam...

@Hyperion45
So all it took was for them to rename 'DLC' back to the classic 'Expansion' and you're happy to pay for it? I don't get it. Of course, I've never understood why people are just 100% against DLC as a concept anyway. If I like the game and want more, I buy more. If I don't particularly want to play more, I don't. If a company includes a necessity as pay-to-play I shelve or sell their game and give them no additional money, write off the studio until further notice, and write off the series - just like I would with any other bad game.

The first big bug kill is always the sweetest.

If anyone is really thinking about what it would take to make a Next Gen console be a generational improvement what about this:

My #1 Demand for new consoles... Solid State Drives.

Practically no loading ever? Yes please!
I think the console devs outside of the big N would see this too, and we won't get a new console generation for a year or two until SSD tech stabilizes and becomes a little cheaper.

@baddates77 True, but it's not like they have any real effective options. When your employer phases out almost 2/3 of your jobs, seems like the writing's on the wall already.

@baddates77

Though I'd imagine there's very significant overlap in the fan bases of the two. The fighting game genre is pretty insular...

I'm betting that it's a series of new downloadable chapters, some stand alone, some continuing an arc. It's not 'Alan Wake 2' but it is new content and a great place for new people to jump in.