So first, I saw this The Verge Forum post. And that was sort of interesting.

The Verge: Forums: Microsoft Tribe: These Xbox Rumors just made my day :D

And, IGN’s Polygon’s own, Arthur Gies, talked about this on this exact thing on this week’s Rebel FM.

Rebel FM Episode 174 – 04/19/2013

Plus: Anthony Gallegos, Mitch Dyer, and Matt Chandronait. So. At (1:17:48), they start taking e-mails and talk about the probability of carrying over current Xbox Live subscriptions. The meat of the discussion starts at (1:24:09)

The Pastebin post he talks about is at: http://pastebin.com/avbwJc17

So, this stuff is awfully interesting. 360 System On Chip Compatibility? And XBLA Compatibility?

Arthur: “.. With some Xbox 360 games, yes.. It depends on the game. Like stuff developed through XNA? Sure. Like Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon? I doubt it.”

I’m not sure what Dunia is, but all this stuff is fascinating. They start to doubt that PS4 will have Instant-Online games, Day 1. Even more than a year after..

Arthur: Microsoft has more to lose, by fucking this up, than Sony does. I don’t know that people fully comprehend yet, exactly what Sony’s leaving on the table. Because I think a lot of people are.. of the understanding that streaming backwards-compatibility is gonna be there on launch day, and its not.. (It absolutely is not)

Mitch: That is a pipe dream.

Anthony: I don’t even think,. I’ll bet you, I’ll throw it in right now. It won’t even be there like a year-and-a-half out after it comes out. .. .

Arthur: There is a incredibly strong-hardcore push this year. I don't know about next year, but this year..

Its at least interesting to listen to. And they do think that PS4 will require a subscription to play online, ala Xbox Live. (1:18:28)

Arthur: Because that is making them so-oo much money.. So-oooo much money.. Like they just released their financial statements that said that 46 million Live subscribers..

Anthony: You’ll be paying for PlayStation, too..

Arthur: I mean, like Sony’s gotta be just like.. touching their balls, looking at that..

Anthony: I mean, you’re going to be paying to play PlayStation games online.

Mitch: If you think Plus is not gonna be Xbox Live Gold, you’re a crazy person..

Anthony: Look how many unique users have logged on to play Call of Duty. Times that times your Gold..

Arthur Gies is a confirmed fanboy.

Why would anyone think that PS4's Gaikai stuff would be online on day 1? That whole section of their announcement was preceded by a big "hey guys, we're basically talking out of our asses here" disclaimer which (may have) explicitly stated that it was a feature which may be coming at a nebulous future date.

Not sure that I buy the idea of a 360 SOC in the new Xbox. It makes a lot of sense in terms of backwards compatibility or as a sub processor for Kinect stuff but sounds horribly expensive. If it facilitates the wholesale transfer of Xbox Live content to the new system, maybe it's justified? Dropping all of that XBLA content would be disastrous considering the already shaky confidence in the Arcade aspect of the service.

Dunia is the Dunia Engine. It's was used on Farcry 2. The latest ver of that engine is on Farcry 3 and Blood Dragon.

The Slim 360s already have a SOC(IIRC) and if the rumours are true that they are doing a small $100 360, then that would give them another reason to keep producing them. Unless the cost comes in from them putting them in the new hardware?

I was a skeptic of PSN+ where I couldn't fathom a reason why I would ever subscribe they honestly provide a service and give benefits. So I'm all for XBox Live Gold if they do the same: Provide a service and give me benefits.

As for SOC, it clearly makes way more sense to implement in software than hardware. Especially for long term such a hardware "SOC" would be "dead weight" in the system a couple of years after release when no one is making any 360 games or need the compatibility.

A bunch of game journalists I don't like all on one podcast. Great... And I disagree with most of their statements. I think online play will be free for PS4, but they'll find ways to make PS Plus more attractive. Basically everything BUT online play, like those new Share features, I could see being on PS Plus.