fr0g said:
It definitely is not fleecing, but both companies are using rather underhand tactics here... "Drop features and wait for public reaction"
It does seem that in many ways that the systems are both a step backwards from the previous generation.
The interpretation I'm reading from those on the inside is that both of these consoles were somewhat rushed to market, with both Sony and Microsoft attempting to one-up the other by getting it released first. My understanding is the Xbox One was a bit more rushed than the PS4 in order to release the console about the same time, hence why a number of the features that were announced back in May haven't made it in the released console (e.g. streaming live gameplay, Dolby Digital encoding + there's a feeling a few of the games have been rushed to meet launch date with Forza 5 for instance missing many things that were present in Forza 4).
Sony's strategy for the PS4 has always been "this is for the players" - it seems they are very much looking at this as a games console first and foremost (unlike with PS3), and therefore haven't concentrated on the media functions that everyone assumed would be part of it (because they were present in the PS3). I'm sure once they feel they've got the gaming side of the console nailed down and running smoothly, time and effort will then go into getting the media playback parts of the console sorted. From what I've read, the console seems to run more reliably than the Xbox One (assuming you're not getting the blue light issue!), with most people saying it runs lightning quick with no crashing. The Xbox One on the other hand seems to take a while to get going and has been known to crash on occasion.
This is my opinion based on what I've been reading over the past few months (though I would say I've been reading a lot about this in my anticipation!). It's certainly not all fact, but it makes more sense to me than either Sony / Microsoft deliberately leaving out features with some evil schemes of "fleecing" or conning their customers. As I've said, treating your customers with contempt this way is bad for business, and both Sony and Microsoft know this all too well. If anything, it's just down to bad planning / thoughtlessness (though more likely, it's a choice of getting "A" or "B" implemented for launch, so they've left out "B" for now), and I'm sure both systems' issues and shortcomings will be patched and remedied over time.