They have certainly earned mine, even though I wanted to buy the origional Xbox from day one, I wasn't sure if I could make the Xbox my console of choice, but when I finally purchased an Xbox two years after it launched, it was everything people said it was, the big game of course, Halo was incredible and made a Halo fan out of me as well has millions of other gamers. It wasn't all about Halo though the Xbox slowly gained strong third party support and exclusives such as the Chronicles of Riddick, Doom 3, and other games made the Xbox worth having.

Now fast foward to E3 2005, I didn't really care to look into all the new things that Xbox 360 would bring I was just happy that they added top buttons to the controller in reminiscents of the Playstation controller and a little game called Gears of War grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go.

Microsoft promised a videogame system that would change entertainment forever, but did they deliver on that promise?

From wireless controllers out of the box, finally no more wires, to game demos on demand, it was a delight to know that I didn't have to buy another game magazine to check out the latest game demos, what an awesome feature. Then came the online gaming features, which took a little getting used to but in no time I was joining games and chatting with friends and strangers. Gears of War lived up to the hype and we all knew Halo 3 was on the way, the reason I needed to get an Xbox 360, did Halo 3 live up to the hype, in my eyes no, but the multiplayer is awesome, along with the recording feature, which I believe every multiplayer game in the future should have, good thing Gears of War was there that game made up for Halo 3's campaign sucking hard, I haven't played Halo 3: ODST yet, but future Halo games is why I will always get an Xbox, I just love the Halo Universe, I am so looking foward to Halo 4 persumably on the next Xbox.

Along with Halo gand Gears of War, Microsoft made sure to give their supporters every game they so desire as a result we now have hit franchises like Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear and Tekken all out for or coming to our Xbox 360.

Microsoft has led the way this generation with a unified online gaming system, along with Movies, TV shows, Music Videos, Music and most important of all amazing and fun videogames on demand all in High Definition all coming from one service Xbox Live and from one box Xbox 360.

So did the Xbox 360 change entertainment forever? HELL'S YEA! And Microsoft aint finished yet, Project Natal will be here next year and who knows what the next Xbox will bring, all I know is that for us Xbox supporters awesome experiences are yet to come from Microsoft and their Xbox.

woah haven't seen flaming around lately...

They earned my respect with Windows.

But yes, they have made a lot of contributions to gaming which are, unfortunately, overlooked because they don't involve new control schemes.

Microsoft has all my respect !

Of course there´s things i dont agree like overpriced acessories but all acessories are TOP NOTCH Quality so i can deal with that.

Xbox has changed online Gaming for Consoles with Halo , has changed Competitive Gaming on Consoles , years before PC Gamers laugh at Consoles Gamers but when Halo comes out they cry like never before , Halo becames the most and better competitive gaming in the world with more teams and Thousands of hardcore Pc Gamers turn Xbox Competitive Gamers.

The 360 Controller is FlawLESS and Wirless just amazing , the games are the best out there for me - Gears of War has took my heart when release in 2006 <3 Mad World Trailer made me Cry.

1st Xbox had already Great Games but nothing like Now , of course Jade Empire , Fable , Halo 1 , Halo 2 , RalliSport Challenge 1 & 2 and much more others were all Amazing Games but now Xbox is at another Level with games coming like Alan Wake , Forza MotorSport 3 , Splinter Cell Conviction , Mass Effect 2 , Halo Reach , Fable III and much much more including Arcades MASTERPIECES like Shadow Complex Xbox Live just Raised the bar in every single term ... From NetFlix to the New SkyPlay Xbox Live is the ultimate Home Theater Exprience you can get , Zune 1080p Videos , FaceBook , Twitter , Last.FM - Everything Done to fully Work with Xbox 360 and its pretty Amazing , FlawLESS and Incredible.

Microsoft is doing an Amazing Job but there´s allways things to to better and i believe they will do even better next Gen and even with this Xbox... I Hope for a Slim Model with Wirless Included ;)

Bring Gears of War 3 Already =)

Oh and let me just say this 2 Words : Project Natal

Sure I respect them and I don't see how any true gamer doesn't. Even supporters for PS3 should thank them to some degree. Without live and many of its features, Sony probably wouldn't have been so fast to try and make PSN better. Both companies feed off of each others ideas to some degree.

Same respect goes to Sony and Nintendo, both companies have only added to the gaming industry and that is a wonderful thing for gamers!

I don't respect companies. If they continue to bring out compelling experiences then I will continue to support their efforts. That is all.

i now don't own anything microsoft related, when i get my window'd laptops i just switch to ubuntu.
i just don't like windows. as a company im just not a fan of their Software.

but i can't deny how popular they are , and how to alot of people , microsoft = Online gaming + internet

is that called respect? or just common sense?

I could say yes... They also piss me off though.

i was just playing PS3 lately (my 360 catches a bit of dust atm , which will change after i bought Magna Carta 2, and much much later fable 3, when it comes) but Microsoft has some of my respect, when i see how they managed to get more gamers to their consoles, i just can gratulate them. (see X vs. X360)

but they´re much more arrogant now, which will maybe kill them later. (see Sony in 06, they were so in love with themselfes, that they almost fully ignored the gamers.. and what happened? yeah, you can see it today).

short said, i agree with dgc.

yes