Ya man, they took a good look at the CoinMarketCap Asset List.
http://coinmarketcap.com/assets/Let's see:
NXT................... 37 assets all types/sizes, 60 sec blocks, liquid exchange, rock solid platform (I've done > 200 trades with zero issues)
Counterparty....... 7 assets, but near zero liquidity, 10-20 minute block times, down a lot just when you need it
Bitshares............ 5 hedging assets, Wall Street ETFs and options will make these primitive tools irrelevant
Mastercoin......... 2 assets, but it's really all the controversial MAID vapor-PO
Nubits............... who knew Jordan and his friends would sell a virtual Fed to the rubes?
Bitshares has 10sec block times with dpos and bitusd etc nxt doesnt have pegged assets only user issued assets.. Big lead for bitshares over nxt.. Nxt has better ui web wallet thats about it. Bitusd means you can essentially trade usd on blockchain.