^ This.

The sex scenes and relationship system found in ME are just baby steps. Given the current technology and the scope of the game, I can't think of a better way BioWare could have handled it.

I commented on a similar article about the XMB. Well, the fact that the SCE director mentions "catch up" is a strong clue that at least internally Sony has recognized the position of its online UI and offerings as compared to XBL.

The XMB is nice. From my short play time on my friend's PS3, my key misgivings so far are the frequent and long update downloads. I popped in several different games that had not been played for a long time and each one had a lengthy patch download to sit through. There's got to be a good reason for this but all title updates on my 360 have neven taken more than a few seconds then bam, I am back in the game.

Playstation Home is not something I'd crow about either. Ever. It was also riddled with frequent, slow downloads and was just... uninteresting. I immediately scrambled to find the exit and go back to the main XMB interface. Also sort of telling during Sony's E3 presser, they did tout big things in the works for Home then did nothing but show a glossy TV-style commercial.

So, disregarding Home, the Sony's XMB is in good shape. I think they just need to keep improving some back-end engineering to optimize game updates and the like.

Spent some time with a friend's PS3 last weekend and quite liked the XMB. It didn't blow me away with it's usability but I like the understated stylings. Makes the NXE look like a candy carnival of colours, not that I have anything against hte NXE either. As others have mentioned, it has slowness issues. Party chat is nice but suffers from constant connection drops and the main Friends screen loads so slowly you're better off using the mini-guide menu.

Reggie's just doing some good old fashioned PR maneuvering post-E3. He (or his assistants) probably kept tabs on all the major news outlets and saw that almost unanimously their presser was rated as the least impressive of the console manufacturers. I don't know what he saw during E3, but I saw some pretty great games from Sony and Microsoft in addition to this "whizz bang" stuff he speaks of.

The PS2 has been helped along by a giant installed base and by fairly strong publisher support even after the launch of PS3. It's coming on 10 years since the PS2 came out and that is really incredible.

Due to all the reasons put forth by analysts and the press, none of the Big 3 are in a mad rush to unveil the next super console. For one, they're going to need to get enough publishers on board with the idea, cuz a brand new technolgy platform is just going to be a big pain in the ass for them and their development studios. They're starting from scratch not only with the tech but also with the install base.

Microsoft probably has the most to gain from moving to the next-gen first. Launching the 720 would definitely force Sony's hand into stepping up the release of the PS4. (As others have already pointed out, a "10 year life cycle" doesn't exclude the co-existence of a next-gen Playstation.) When that happens, we'll see if the PS3 has the kind of legs the PS2 has shown. I find it very hard to imagine Sony will just sit still while Microsoft gets the jumpstart on the next-gen.

It'll be also interesting to see how Microsoft treats the 360 after the 720 comes out. Drop the 360 like a hot potato or at least make an effort to smoothly transition their customer base to the new platform?