At the end of the discussion those guys are totally right about next gen console gaming being about services just as much as games (if not more). Honestly, I think the advances of current gen were more about services than the games themselves, at least in terms of the playing of games.

The Xbox 360's real killer app was Live. People want to stay connected to their friends on Live and that's probably a leading reason why multiplatform games sell more on 360. For a long time this gen people also constantly compared the service to PSN. Nintendo is already trying to offer its own thing with MiiVerse, which many Wii U owners have said is one of the most compelling things to do with the console. Hell, MiiVerse in itself is already a kind of gaming social network that I honestly hope Sony and Microsoft rip off.

On the show though you guys were talking about these services going across media, turning consoles into general set-top-boxes, and I think that's what they're going to have to do in order to survive.

The reason dedicated handhelds are becoming less relevant is because of other handheld devices that do damnear everything. That kind of convergence hasn't quite taken hold in the living room yet. Other people are trying with Smart TVs and other set top boxes and whatnot, and I think game consoles have an opportunity to take their place in that market.

Microsoft is totally gonna turn the next Xbox into the living room extension of Windows 8 (even though I honestly think a gaming HTPC serves the same purpose better). They might get families to buy it as an all-in-one center-of-your-living-room device that happens to play games. I'm not sure whether Sony (well, all of Sony) will get the message beforehand despite having all the resources to do the same thing.