7. Superior Online Functionality?
There's little point trying to deny the fact that the Xbox 360 was a vastly superior online experience to the PS3; while the PS3 didn't even allow players to enter a party and communicate over headsets properly, the 360 had a comprehensive system that allowed you to see what your friends were up to minute to minute. When Sony presented the PS4 at February's PlayStation Meeting, they made it clear that this was something they were going to remedy, heavily promoting the "Share" feature and the idea of social gaming. While we didn't see any specific features about a new PSN, Sony are evidently taking the online capabilities of their platform a lot more seriously than they did in the previous gen. Still, Microsoft have proven over the last 8 years that as far as games consoles go, they are the Kings of Online. Neither Nintendo nor Sony managed to become even the slightest threat to them; though Xbox Live is a pay-service, it's proven hugely popular and, in my opinion, totally worth the nominal fee. There's no reason to expect that this supreme reign won't continue with the 720; the framework is there, and it just needs to be expanded and nurtured for social media trends and emerging technology.