first of MS has been in the VG business for about 15 years so about the same as Sony... MS as a whole is probably one of the leading company in R&D in the software and high tech world people might not like it but it is a fact... and they hire among the best people to do that job that is another fact....
and then you have to remember they are not as much in the VG industry than they are in the multimedia entertainment bizz, the XBox is just a first step to set up their presence in the living room which will be the place where people will do a lot of their non professional stuff, the era of the PC in the office is approaching the end and MS knows that... this is the only reason XBox exist and the only reason they CAN'T stop it or otherwise they are signing the end of their empire as it exist today...
so the end of MS in the VG world is not happening in that life time not by choice but by obligation...
