The Xbox One

Sony is now the old Microsoft, and Microsoft the old Sony: http://www.gametrailers.com/full-episodes/w5i2js/bonus-round-microsoft-s-next-move

If you go to 10:42 in the above link, Andy McNamara (Editor-in-Chief of Game Informer) Talks about a movement in the gaming industry. How Indie devs are pissed at Microsoft, and how Sony is really embracing them.

At 11:38 Jeff Gerstmann (Famous Game reviewer, and GiantBomb cast member) talks about Microsoft moving in the opposite direction with that stuff (Catering Developers) and how it's a flip of the last time around (He's talking about Sony having the better system, and treating developers better) That is something Microsoft use to do. He also talks about retail, and how publishers are taking sides, and how some don't like what Microsoft is doing (He's talking about Microsoft's used game policy for the XBone, and how that will fragment relationships, and some publishers don't agree with Microsoft's control) He talks about more console exclusives because of this, and this is the big one (He's hinting that hedoesn't agree with the way Microsoft is getting 3rd party exclusives, because of their DRM used game policy, and heres why…

Microsoft/Publishers to receive cut of Xbox One pre-owned sales at retail: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/publishers-to-receive-cut-of-xbox-one-pre-owned-sales-at-retail/0116137

It talks about Microsoft's Azure system in place for retail stores (That sells used games) who agree with a Microsoft contract to use the system. Microsoft/Publishers will take a chunk of each used game sold (That means your games will be worth far less, and will be sold at a higher price because of this control) It also proves Sony doesn't have this kind of system in place, and i'll prove it with the next link.

Sony never considered Always-Online DRM for PS4: http://www.gamespot.com/news/sony-rules-out-always-online-for-ps4-report-6408071

What is said in the article… . "Sony president of Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, said that a constant Internet connection would not be required from users, given the differences in web services available across the globe.“Did we consider it? No, we didn’t consider it," said Yoshida. . "The main reason being that many countries don’t have robust Internet connections. It makes sense for people to have Internet connections to play online games, but for offline games there are many countries that we saw [that] do not really have robust Internet.”
He says that because they believe in a way different philosophy than Microsoft does. It's mostly due of the locations they sell to, and don't have that Azure system in place to handle that kind of draconian system.

Sony catches Microsoft off guard, and got lucky doing so: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-spec-analysis-xbox-one

In terms of the GPU hardware, hard information was difficult to come by, but one of the engineers did let slip with a significant stat - 768 operations per clock. We know that both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are based on Radeon GCN architecture and we also know that each compute unit is capable of 64 operations per clock.
So, again through a process of extrapolation from the drip-feed of hard facts, the make-up of the One's GPU is confirmed - 12 compute units each capable of 64 ops/clock gives us the 768 total revealed by Microsoft and thus, by extension, the 1.2 teraflop graphics core.
So that's another tick on the Durango leaked spec that has been transposed across to the final Xbox One architecture and the proof we need that PlayStation 4's 18 CU graphics core has 50 per cent more raw power than the GPU in the new Microsoft console. Now, bearing in mind that we fully expect PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to launch at similar price-points, how did this disparity come about?

The answer to that comes down to a specific gamble Sony made that Microsoft could not - the utilisation of a unified pool of GDDR5 memory. In the early days of PS4 development, only 2GB of this type of memory looked viable for a consumer-level device. As higher density modules became available, this was duly upgraded to 4GB.
By the time of the reveal back in February, Sony had confidence that it could secure volume of 512MB modules and surprised everyone (even developers) by announcing that PS4 would ship with 8GB of unified GDDR5 RAM. The design of its surrounding architecture would not need to change throughout this process - one set of 16 GDDR5 chips would simply be swapped out for another.
Microsoft never had the luxury of this moving target. With multimedia such a core focus for its hardware, it set out to support 8GB of RAM from day one (at the time giving it a huge advantage over the early PS4 target RAM spec) and with serious volume of next-gen DDR4 unattainable in the time window, it zeroed in on supporting DDR3 and doing whatever was necessary to make that work on a console.
The result is a complex architecture - 32MB of ESRAM is added to the processor die, along with "data move engines" to courier information around the system as quickly as possible with bespoke encode/decode hardware to alleviate common bottlenecks. Bottom line: if you're wondering why Xbox One has a weaker GPU than PlayStation 4, it's because both platform holders have similar silicon budgets for the main processor - Sony has used the die-space for additional compute units and ROPs (32 vs. 16 in One), while Microsoft has budgeted for ESRAM and data move engines instead. From the Xbox perspective, it's just unfortunate for Microsoft that Sony's gamble paid off - right up until the wire, it was confident of shipping with twice the amount of RAM as PlayStation 4.

The added 4GB of GDDR5 RAM Sony put into the PS4 caught Microsoft off guard, because they went the cheaper more convoluted route.

Sony's PS4 GPU is over 50% more powerful: http://anandtech.com/show/6972/xbox-one-hardware-compared-to-playstation-4

"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood." . Microsoft's OS for the XBone likely takes up more memory than PS4.

Microsoft confirms: Xbox One OS uses 3GB RAM, 5GB RAM for games: http://gimmegimmegames.com/2013/05/microsoft-confirms-xbox-one-os-uses-3gb-ram-5gb-ram-for-games/

With the XBone running 3 OS systems simultaneously, it cuts into game resources. While Sony's OS usage is still a rumor, it's very likely that it only needing 1 GB is spot on.

http://ps4daily.com/2013/04/playstation-4-developers-7-gb-ram/

Xbox One uses more GPU power for all it's OS systems: http://kotaku.com/the-five-possible-states-of-xbox-one-games-are-strangel-509597078

"The game is loaded in memory and is fully running. The game has full access to the reserved system resources, which are six CPU cores, 90 percent of GPU processing power, and 5 GB of memory"

While the PS4 may use some of it's GPU power, it will be no where close to 10% of it like the XBone and it's 3 OSes.
People puts 2&2 together after Microsoft's XBox One event after Microsoft was very vague on specs, on purpose:
By using the limited available specs from the show, mathematics, and PC hardware that's already on the market. People were able to know the GPU power of the Xbox One, and found out how it underperforms. Microsoft realized this, and sent out the CLOUD based theory ASAP, and how it will boost Xbox One's tech up to 300X more than without.
That's really unproven, and most think is very unreasonable. Seems like it's reactionary FUD to try and 1-Up Sony out of pure desperation, and it came out AFTER the truth got out about the Xbox One being underpowered compared to the PS4

Lending a friend your game? He will need to pay full price of the game: kotaku.com/you-will-be-able-to-trade-xbox-one-games-online-micros-509140825

"You'll have to pay a fee—and not just some sort of activation fee, but the actual price of that game—in order to use a game's code on a friend's account. Think of it like a new game, Harrison said."
The Only way your friend doesn't have to buy the game (At full price) is if you are there signed into your account.

The Kinect is mandatory, and can’t be turned off: http://www.penny-arcade.com/report/article/the-kinect-is-mandatory-and-cant-be-turned-off-welcome-your-new-motion-sens

"Kinect does require to be connected to Xbox One in all cases, yes," he said .

Always on, always watching/listening, giving Microsoft feedback. That's very intrusive to our privacy, and in order for your system to work, Kinect needs to be working. Hopefully Microsoft's quality on Kinect is better than the 360 RRoD.