The next system will be called the Xbox Positive.

That way you can't talk crap about it, or think of the horrible losses they have made in the journey to release that console. Furthermore because everyone calls the Xbox 360, the 360, people will only call it by it's last name, Positive.

Be positive, they can't lose with the name like that.

I did not want to say Playstation brand was nothing....


But when you have the PSP with 30% market share on handhelds (remember it was the Gameboy Killer) and PS3 with 21% (console), their brand is not a leader, that means is no longer a threat for Micorosoft.

Why not Xbox Blue............ Think Blue!!!

In my opinion Microsoft are in this business to become the dominant player. They've spent billions this gen to get a bigger slice of the pie, but they're still a long way off their eventual goals.

They've clawed their way into this industry the hard way and I think Microsofts hugely expensive venture may well be what's kept other players out or wary of entering the market. (Not to mention Sony's recent losses etc.) They're daunted by the prospect of having to spent billions and billions only to see a return years down the road.

Still, MS have probably acheived some of their short term goals as far as this gen is concerned and will be in a better standing for next gen.

As for the 'Playstation brand means almost nothing' comment, I completely disagree. The Playstation brand is undeniably huge. There are still parts of Europe and no doubt other countries where people don't even know what an Xbox is and prefer the Playstation off brand name alone. I don't think the PS3 could have even sold as well as it has without it's strong brand recognition.

Also Microsoft would not have 'feared' Sony.

ROFLOL...while I think the caption picture is totally off the mark, since M$ hasn't gone out making incorrect statements like that, I DO believe that M$ was concerned about sony's push to turn the playstation into a complete multimedia platform. The current push for convergence is where it's at, and M$ wants to be at the heart of it, since it will be software driven.

MS feared that most multimedia things usually PC-related moved to the living room and SOny would control them from one point on ...specially as Sony didnt want to use their propietary software and keep their "I create crap software and then sit and receive billions year after year " virtuous cycle working ....

The 360 has managed more or less MS ambitions regarding this .

Sony isnt in the same position as before ,and they have definitely put a foot in the living room multimedia thing with the 360 and its netflix association .

But they still have lost some wars .For example the HD-DVD vs Blu Ray war ,that had the HDI interactive software of MS in the HD-DVD and was beaten by the Java-enabled Blu Ray.The PS3 still has better multimedia capabilities and has its Play TV peripheral ,and being the PSN free there are nearly more PSN users that Live users righ now...and the video dowloads for the PSN will also take some marketshare .Also the PS3 uses Linux ,its own web browser aside of Explorer ..

MS had 100% of royalties over most things multimedia with the PC ,but on the move to living room they are losing a lot of marketshare ,at least half the marketshare in their copyrighted software .

MS move prevented Sony from taking over from a substantial part of their business ,but they still dont have it for granted .BR has triumphed ,Linux adoption is growing ,Firefox adoption is growing ,Mac pressence is growing ,Vista is failing  ,and the PS3 is still a succesful console despite MS best efforts .

not only does the Playstation name still mean something, but they are finally actually making in roads on MS's original fear. and that is the computer business, with the ability to upgrade the HD and install full distro linux on there, uhm you got a full fledged computer with incredible gaming to boot.

I like the picture tho, MS acting like mission accomplished is about as dumb as what Bush did.

Microsoft is incredibly paranoid about this sort of thing. Many times they have gone out of their way to crush what seemed like an inconsequential threat.

On topic: I would think the original Xbox achieved it's mission, but that the 360 failed in it's primary mission, though succeeded in many of the smaller goals that were had for it. The original Xbox was simply there to build brand recognition, which it did. Xbox was part of the cultural lexicon, so there's that. The 360 was definitely in it to be the number one name in gaming, which was obviously taken away from them by the Wii. However, the 360 has replaced the PlayStation brand as the top name in hardcore gaming, they have become the number one brand for core gamers, and the 360 has made successful inroads in Japan, especially compared to the Xbox's abysmal performance therein.

If it weren't for the Wii, the 360 would have totally succeeded, but the 360 has fulfilled most of what Microsoft set out to do with it

@ CGI: SHUT UP!!! $0.02 isn't even legal tender... its worthless!!!

Mission Accomplished.

2 second place finishes and 5 billion dollars wasted.

Yeah, fission mailed more like it.