What I mean is with Nintendo not appealing to core gamers the last two gens, what we have is a douopoly in the core market between MS and SONY. Not domination by one company like a monopoly, but two. The same as 360/PS3 last gen.
What this means is if one competitor falls too far behind, if it risks losing third party support, it's doomed. So, each company is certain to not let that happen, because it would mean certain death of their entire investment.
So I'd just caution those hoping Xbox somehow goes away, it's not going to happen. MS will cut the price to $199 if they needed too. Of course far less drastic measures will get it done, it's just to illustrate the point. Already you can see MS being aggressive with Titanfall marketing, Titanfall bundle, and Forza 5 pack in. But that's just the earliest beginning. People can crow how bad Xbox is being beaten, or that it's already dead...but it's March. MS will take their sweet time in the scheme of things. They might not cut to $399 until say, September. So people will say for March, April, May, etc that Xbox is D000med as the sale figures roll in...but it's meaningless, it's a short term view with no long term ramifications. It's no more doomed than when PS3 sold incredibly poorly in early 2006.
Another thing is people dont realize, even a healthy 2nd place just in the USA and UK is enough to gaurentee third party support. You dont even need to win those markets, just say do decently well in them. Xbox can do that with ease. Hell it is currently despite all the problems and a high price.
So, the point is the only "endgame" here is the loss of third party support, and in a douopoly of consoles, it's almost impossible to make that happen.
