They haven´t lost a generation yet.Sony has,Nintendo has but Microsoft has never lost.They have mantain a steady pace keeping themselfs second and  I think they could have the right balance.Just by seeing how last year´s E3 you could see

Nintendo=Casuals

Sony=Hardcore

Microsoft=Both

I see them going in the right track they already have to solid main franchises Gears and Halo and probably more to come.

Nope Actually the third time has always been an all time low for game consoles.

N64
Sega Saturn
Playstation 3

Time and again. Take your pick.

i dont think so

Sorry but finishing 2nd is still losing. So all three have lost. I don't see this happening next gen. Maybe the one after that. The reliability of the 360 will hurt the 720 to some extent.

They lost last gen, you either win or lose. I don't see them winning next gen because Nintendo could just release the "Wii 2" and Sony will learn from their mistakes. And there's the 3rd console curse as well. I could be wrong though.

The 3rd console curse only works if a company had 2 previous market leaders...so far at least.

Microsoft will have America firmly in their grasp by next year and most likely they'll have hardware that doesn't break down upon launch. I think they will have a far greater chance of winning next gen than any other gen. The more Microsoft seems to learn, the more dangerous they become. I say they and Nintendo will be neck and neck since they both have found their strong points.

they aren't making money yet, they have to eat up 6 million in lost from the xbox and 1.1 billion 360

and yes they have always lost, 2nd = lost.

if you lost 5 $ and won 1$ you are still loosing.

I wonder about how Nintendo and Microsoft are going to compete really. The thing is with the Wii, its really got hardware from circa 2002, by 2011 thats almost two whole generations of visual improvements and if a console comes out in say 2011 like the Wii but far far more powerful the graphical improvements would be enough to impress people.

Microsoft does have the strength of Xbox Live, its a community which should give them quite a significant captive audience who will only upgrade to a next generation Xbox console barring unforseen circumstances like it sucking balls. Theres 10-20M people right there who may eventually get an Xbox Evolution. Thats a pretty good base to build off, especially as neither PSN or Wii online has the same community feeling and probably not the same level of loyalty.

Microsoft does have quite a few options up its sleeve. They have the option of turning the Xbox Evolution into a computer, they have Windows for example. They have some pretty cool interface technologies as well. What they don't have is a reliable 1st party stable to develop cutting edge innovative software for their Nextbox. To mitigate that weakness they have to release early and get developers working on their platform and releasing games before other platforms to give them early momentum. So ideally they will want to release at least one year, preferrably 18m-2years before Nintendo to give themselves and third parties a chance to create some really compelling software.