I don't think it would have made much of a difference. It just seems that for some reason most people really didn't want Sony to succeed this generation. I'm not sure if that is because the name Halo made the XBOX brand something that was gaining some kind of street cred in 2004-2005 that contributed to the desirability of the 360 or if it was because of the fact that so many fans of games in the US had been hankering for an American made console for so long. I remember my friends and I that grew up playing Atari 2600 in the early eighties, for a number of years they would be like, "I don't want to get a console that isn't American." Or, "Why won't an American company put out a game console?"
Now at E3 2006, Microsoft hit upon a way to decrease the PS3's popularity. They started encouraging people buy a Wii and help them knock the PS3 out of the top spot. And somehow that became a popularly discussed meme of the press back in those days. The media was creating a hype that was focusing more on the Wii and 360 as the consoles to have (not even mentioning things like Sony's vast library of exclusives), and so most people went along with this and as a result the Wii and 360 have been the consoles to own this gen.
It can be said that this backfired on MS to an extent as I think that they didn't think the Wii was going to prove to be as popular as it is. And right now, the fact that the 360 and PS3 get so many of the same and / or same types of games keeps either one from being able to challenge the Wii. But, in a game console world without Sony next gen, I think MS would find a way to beat the next Nintendo console especially if they have a supremely powerful machine on the market in comparison to the 360 next time out while Wii 2 is only being a step up from the PS3. Especially, if MS can continue to grow Western franchises and add key exclusive titles from Japan that if things had gone differently would have been sure fire Sony exclusives to their mix.
My most anticipated games: Whatever Hideo Kojima is going to do next, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Gran Turismo 5, Alan Wake, Wii Sports Resort. Cave Story Wiiware.
