How is the new party system NOT an innovation? What other console or PC gaming platform has EVER allowed sharing music, pictures and videos with your party? [crickets chirping] We won't even know all the ways this can be useful until it's been out a few months. To me, this was the biggest MS announcement of all. The great games are a given at this point.

Console gaming has become a much more social activity, and MS has been the undeniable leader in this shift. They could have just left Live the way it is, and still have been leaps beyond PSN for the foreseeable future; but instead they keep pushing that bar.

As I said before, aside from a few first party titles and VERY FEW third party exclusives; pretty much every game is multi-plat these days, so everything that differentiates the functionality of the console itself is a potential big selling point.

I don't really think MS needed FF13 to "save their show." It was merely icing on an already generous helping of cake. None the less, it was HUGE and worthy of announcement even if the game is more than a year out. It certainly shook the gaming community more than any other single announcement that came out of this year's E3; beyond question and without a doubt.

Which is why I said CONSOLE gaming. It may come as a surprise, but a lot of console gamers just don't game on the PC. No seriously, it's true. And still Live has gone, and is going, far beyond the features that Steam and Valve offer on the PC.

And yes, Sony did show a lot of things that still won't be on shelves by the next E3. MAG? They don't even have a name for that one yet, so what exactly made it worth showing THIS year? It almost seemed like a desperation announcement.

Almost every game MS talked about had a fairly solid release date. Sure they could have also talked about their games that are still two or more years out, but why would they when they have plenty of games that are actually releasing in the next twelve months?

No comment about the new party system? Of course not. It's a new and innovative feature that has yet to be seen on any console or PC gaming platform. I can well imagine people spending as much time in the new party system as they do actually gaming. Mark my words, in a short time, this will become the most loved feature of XBL.

In many ways, Don was right. Sony did talk about a lot of games, but how many of those games had actual release dates? I think that many of the games that Sony talked about, they will still by hyping at the next E3; because they certainly won't be on the shelves by then.

Meanwhile, the games that MS hyped will be playable by the next E3. Also, they had TONS to talk about in terms of console/dash usability. In an era where probably more than 90% of games are multi-platform, actual console features can make a really big difference.

People still aren't talking a lot about it yet, but I think the new party system is going to be HUGE. The ability to share your own network files with your friends in a party can have so many great uses. Imagine for competitive gamers who frequently capture their gameplay. Now they'll have the ability to go over the footage in a party and really critique each other. As an ex competitive gamer, I can see where this will definitely make some stronger teams. And of course internet pirates are going to LOVE this. Who needs Netflix, when they can all form a party and watch their stolen downloads together? There are going to be so many uses for this.

From the above story

"Along with the newly revamped Xbox Live experience came Live Party, a way for online friends to basically form a gaming group, staying together from game to game, sharing pictures, music, and even videos while never losing touch with one another."

What about the new party system? That is freakin AWESOME!

1. You can start your party without being in a game lobby. "Hey guys... what game do you want to play tonight?"

2. You can share music, pictures and VIDEOS from your network. "Who wants to watch this video I just downloaded?"

3. You can switch games without having to break-up and regroup your party. "This game blows, let's go play (insert game that doesn't blow [in your opinion which may differ from mine] here.)

It's still not too late for Sony to come up with a basic feature set and require it for all games that have yet to be developed. Let's hope they do. This whole MGO fiasco could be just a precursor if they don't.

You guys are just plain wrong. This problem has everything to do with Sony (and no this has nothing to do with justifying my XBL subscription.)

The PS3 is Sony's platform, and they have every right to demand that a game support certain features, or that online transactions be handled through PSN. In fact, I would argue that it is utterly boneheaded and borderline incompetent to NOT enforce certain standards and features before they certify a game for release on their console. This is problem that goes beyond Konami, and goes beyond MGO. This lack of unified standards means you never know what features you will get when you buy a PS3 game. Will I be able to chat with other players? Will it show their ID so I will even know who I am talking to? Will I be able to play custom soundtracks? It really seems as though game devs are allowed to ignore any features they don't want to be bothered with, even if it is a very basic and expected feature.

If, however, Sony had made it a must that all download content must go through PSN before they ever launced their console; it wouldn't have been able to be used as a bargaining chip. Instead, they leave far too much to the developers to decide. I just think that this lack of standards is causing problems that go well beyond one game, and it's something Sony should have paid more attention to from the beginning.

Take for instance Home. You and your party will hopefully be able to have all kinds of unique and fun social interactions. Then together your whole party can jump into a multiplayer game that may or may not even support some very basic multiplayer features.

I would rather you guys go back to the old days, where, instead of 100 mediocre to plain stupid commments were replaced with 10 incredibly insightful ones."

All of the Gawker sites, which Kotaku is one of, have gone to open commenting. It's good for hits, which is good for advertisers, which is good for the site, which is good for us. Get over it and skip the comments you don't like.

@ everyone hating on the Mii like avatars.... they are not necessary unless you want to play a game that uses them. You can still use your gamerpics.

I don't see anyone commenting on a little snippet I picked up on. "Photosharing party" does this mean that we'll be able to party up with friends and share photos from our hard drives and not just photos taken from the Vision camera? If so, that's a pretty cool feature that I don't recall seeing in the announcements!

@HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak: I agree. If something is THAT important that you can't wait until you get to your destination (or at least a long red light) then pull over.

Sony had a good month which was no doubt bolstered by MGS4, but another thing that many gamers don't think about is that the PS3 has also been bolstered by the death of hd-dvd. I doubt there is a way to figure out exactly what percentage of people buy the PS3 primarily as a blu-ray player rather than a gaming console, but software sales certainly back up the fact that these people do exist. I believe that as quality 2.0 compliant blu-ray players drop below the price of the PS3, we will no doubt see a drop in PS3 sales.

Come on fanboys! Get drunk, have a cry, get over it, and move on!

Anyway, Good job MS. You jumped into a new market, knowing you had a long tough road of it and now you are making good. It's certain that you will end up with far more than the 20% market share you had last gen. I still doubt that you end up beating Sony this gen, but Sony is CERTAINLY not going to come out with the 80% they had last gen (this is all excluding Nintendo.) If you learn your lesson about hardware going to the next gen, and Sony does not learn from it's many mistakes this gen, you, MS, will almost certainly be king in the next gen!

Anyway, I want to be a female AND have a wife. I guess that since we wouldn't be able to go to the sperm bank and make a withdrawal in that day and time, we could just steal children from a peasant family if we wanted them.

The length and quality of games are limited by development costs and the limitations of the consoles themselves. We're not seeing larger worlds and better graphics because disc size has increased. We're seeing them because coding quality and compression techniques have improved greatly. You would be AMAZED at some games that you can download today that are under 50 kb. That's right, kb, not mb. PS3 games are currently exceeding DVD9 limits because they are placing the SAME game assets in multiple locations on the disc to improve load times, and because of games like MGS4 with insanely long cutscenes.

None of this is to knock the Wii. I love to Wii bowl with my friends when they come over; but when I want to play a video game, I turn on my 360 or even my PS3.