My thoughts about this...
MS is very difficult to gauge at the moment. The leaked specs of Durango are somewhat behind PS4, still within the range of 360 vs PS3, so in that sense, MS is ok.
But of course, devs have spoken about the benefits of having faster ram and now that Sony went batshit insane and just said "fuck it" to their financial bottom line, it will have some kind of affect on the balance and it could be that PS4 comes out like a lead platform here..
What baffles me a bit here is Microsoft have sooooo many smart people, they have so many engineers from old Silicon Graphics and people who have worked with super computers, graphics etc etc. Microsoft Research is a top place for knowledge and MS themselves contribute quite a bit in the graphical development.
And also being a software company, MS should "know" how to design great hardware, designed to push graphics or whatever needs to be pushed.
And somehow, it seems that people are disappointed with what MS will show (based on the leaks)..
On the other hand, the game biz environment has changed quite a bit and companies needs to be able to adapt to these changes, if not, they will be left behind (like the position Nintendo is in now).
MS perhaps have gauged the whole videogame business "correctly" and are adapting to it better than the competition.
It does seems that MS are out for the whole experience box, that from one single box, you will be able to handel all kinds of entertainment.
But also, gaming entertainment will most likely transform to a much more immersive experience and perhaps this is what MS will offer much better (and what will be the next big thing) that the competitors will not be able to compete with or at least, not as good.
Stuff like Kinect2, Illumiroom and Fortaleza glasses (or occulus rift) are things that can play a major role for gaming in the coming years and in this regards, maybe MS have positioned themselves much better..
Regarding hardware specs..
Durango seems to be capable, however, we still don´t know the final stuff.. but if the leaks are to be believed, then it will be capable, but still lagging somewhat behind PS4.
Here, MS did have a golden opportunity to become the "de facto" standard.. meaning that thanks to their financial position, they could have developed the most powerful machine (16 thread, dual gpu, other crazy stuff).. and sold it with the subscription model and well, still take the financial blow of selling the machine with a loss, in order to establish itself as the best gaming machine (as well as the other things MS wants to deliver). And Sony would struggle to follow MS lead there, because of the world of pain Sony is in financially...
MS did not do this.. for whatever reasons.
Perhaps they know something, perhaps Durango is a big smoke wall, for the real machine.
Perhaps there are reasons we heard stuff like 16 threads cpu and a 3TFLOP machine..who knows..
Well, im rambling a bit here..
What we know here is that Sony have showed more of their hand than MS have and we still have to see how MS reacts to it. It can also be that MS says like "Ok, fuck it, let´s moneyhat the biz and pay for some crazy exclusivity".. leaving Sony with a powerful machine, but without the top games..
In any ways, the videogame biz has changed forever and this upcoming gen, there are much more things that companies have to deliver, besides gaming. The company who can deliver on all fronts, will be on top..
