A breakdown of gaming profits for the last 3 years.

[Bodhesatva]

NJ5 said:
Microsoft has been consistently losing money with their Xbox business, but they sure as hell aren't going to stop now. Especially when they're about to make some profit. The 1 billion dollar loss due to 360 defects is very unfortunate, but it's not going to stop them.

Sony is in their third generation and has much less financial capability than Microsoft, so it's more likely Sony kicks the PS brand down than MS kicking their Xbox brand. And both are pretty unlikely by the way...

I agree with all of this, at least in the short term. I'd add this: currently, lots of companies are losing lots of money in the video game industry (not just MS/Sony: third party profits are generally down as well). In fact other than Nintendo and the few companies that supported the Wii from the beginning, almost every company involved in video games has seen tiny profits or real losses. Thus, I think it's fair to view this as strong evidence that 3 consoles can't be adequately supported by the market. By the end of the next generation (12+ years from now) I expect one of these three companies to leave the industry, and I think its least likely to be Nintendo.