: The weeks from May 21 to June 13 will be crucial in determining whether I go
: with the PS4 or next-gen Xbox first (well, technically I'm going Wii U
: first, as I'm saving up for one right now, but after that I'm saving for
: one of the other two). Sony already impressed me with their announcement,
: and I'm already leaning heavily in their favor right now. MS will have to
: do just as good if not better to convince me to be an early adopter of the
: next-gen Xbox. They will have to do at least two things to accomplish
: this: 1) No always-online requirements and no blocking used games.
: Either of these would be absolute deal breakers. I'm not buying a system
: that will be a brick anytime my internet goes down or the XBL servers go
: down (also, what if I move out to the boonies where there's not cable?).
: Also, I'm not buying a system that won't allow me to play used games or
: borrow games from friends. While $60 is a fair price for a new game,
: it's still a substantial risk to pay that much for a game that one is
: unsure that they'll like, much for a game bought sight-unseen. Buying used
: incurs less risk for the consumer, and despite the cries of some devs, the
: supposed harm of used games is negligible at best. I know I wouldn't have
: bought games like F.E.A.R. or BlazBlue new, but I did buy them used (they
: were okay, but not worth full MSRP).

: 2) Expand their selection of exclusives. While the 360 had a fair number of
: exclusives earlier in its life cycle, it became increasingly reliant on
: just four major IPs: Halo, Gears, Forza, and Fable. Halo and Gears, the
: only ones I have any interest in, will likely be no-shows during the
: launch window as we just got new entries in both series (also, in Halo's
: case a Halo 2 Anniversary would likely not come out until next year).
: Microsoft really needs to expand its selection of exclusive titles. They
: have a lot of preexisting IPs at their disposal such as Crackdown (which
: deserves a real sequel, which that half-assed Crackdown 2 was anything
: but) and all the series they inherited when they bought Rare. Sequels to
: Perfect Dark and Killer Instinct would be great if they did them right (PD
: Zero was a disappointment). They could also have re-releases of Blast
: Corps and Battletoads for XBLA, and possibly develop sequels to them as
: well. Also, what happened to securing exclusive JRPG titles like they did
: with Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey? We do know that they are working on at
: least one new IP, an FPS which is being produced by Black Tusk Studios
: (formerly Microsoft Vancouver), but that alone may not be enough. The
: launch window lineup is really going to have to wow me for me to bother
: getting the system early.

: If they can really impress me in the coming weeks and avoid any boneheaded
: mistakes like always-online, I might shell out for a
: 720/Durango/Infinity/NextBox/whatever it's going to be called. But if not,
: well, if you want to play Destiny with me you can hit me up on PSN.

If my Internet connection was even close to reliable (thanks Centruylink) I still would not buy the new x box even if Microsuck drops the "always on" crap, and because I think I'm pretty much burnt out as a gamer.