Xbox Live, hard drives (though they fumbled that with the 360...), achievements, marketplace, they had the first wireless controllers, etc. It's like a fully realized Dreamcast! haha

I think most who have followed the console makers lately would say that, coming in to the PS3 launch, Sony were the absolute kings of arrogance.
Then again, this whole topic makes me wonder if weclock recently suffered a head injury, so what do I know? :)

I love my xbox360 so I don't care about this article

There's no issue specifically with making third-party peripherals and accessories. The issues that do arise in these kinds of cases typically stem from a proprietary connector being patented, or a software handshake between two devices falling under copyright or trade secrets laws. None of these things are actually applicable in this case. Datel is the one who actually brought suit in response to MS rolling out a firmware update that caused Datel memory cards to stop working with the 360. Datel losing the case would only mean that they have to keep up the arms race of changing their memory cards to work with the new firmware, followed by MS again changing the firmware, and so on and so forth.

The update killed ALL non-official memory units, not just Datel ones. I don't know how many other companies make them but it'd got to be more than just datel
I seem to recall a sony rep saying words to the effect of "Yes its overpriced but people will buy it anyway"

Yep, I remember those 'words of wisdom' as well. And then there were those ridiculous advertisements they ran...just weird.

Whoa, back the truck up. Nearly all of that, in fact everything except maybe the marketplace, had already been done before by other games or systems. MS just took those ideas, refined them a bit, threw some Xbox branding on it and called it their own.

Yeah it was called the PC (which is basically what the xbox is anyway)

*laughs*
But really, what console has been original really? The PSX, which was incredibly popular, didn't innovate either. It wasn't the first to use CD-ROMs, it wasn't the first to use real 3D, it wasn't the first to have analog thumbsticks, etc. Most console refine and redefine existing ideas, shaping them into polished ideas. AFAIK, the Xbox 360 was the first console that was sold with a hard drive, though?

The Atari 2600 was pretty original. First console system to really provide an open and developer friendly architecture (or at least the first one where that really took off) and one of the earliest to use interchangeable media rather than hardcoded knockoffs of pong
The original xbox sold with a hard drive, with the 360 its considered optional (but basically isn't). Personally I consider that the single biggest design flaw (the RROD was a manufacturing flaw rather than a design one) since it took forever to give us the option for game installs and efficient use of downloadable content

Beaten by its own predecessor for starters.

The original was the first to come with a HDD as standard though I seem to recall the PS2 had an optional attachment for one. Did it ever really get used or would it just be a 20GB memory card?

I guess so, but this was the first time it actually meant something. I.E the Dreamcast had online play and DLC, but it was almost a prototype until Xbox did it. I did totally forget about the wavebird though. I guess um...it didn't have rumble or battery packs! lolo. Achievements and the whole gamertag thing were kind of an Xbox thing.
It was pretty much just for FF11. 360 not having an hdd standard is such a shoot yourself in a foot move. MAYBE the lack of a built in HDDVD or BD drive as well but so far that hasn't been a huge deal.
Original Xbox was a PC, but....it wasn't. It was a game console. You know what I mean.
Yeah PC did a lot of that stuff but probably the only Xbox Live style thing on PC (besides the obvious GFWL) is Steam. People don't seem to like Steam a whole lot but it's true. I don't think it's a bad thing to want a universal friends list and whatnot on PC games, maybe Steam isn't it but something, you know?

The saddest thing is that GFWL is a platform with great potential, it just needs some care and common sense applied to it

Like being available worldwide and not including DRM in titles publishers don't want to see it in?