As I see it M$ main objectives were;
1) Stop Sony having the "do every thing box" in peoples living rooms, taking importance away from pc's.
2) Be the dominant players at getting a "do everything box" in people living rooms.
Being a force in the video game console race was only means to do this and was a secondary to their main objectives.
They have had great success in their first objective, even though it was not all their doing. Sony made so many terrible mistakes with the ps3, that if set out to kill the playstation brand, you would have a tough time doing a better job at than Sony have.
Meanwhile Nintendo have done M$ a big favour by taking the dominate position from Sony. Much safer for them having Nintendo #1 because they are firmly games oriented, they cant even be bothered with dvd playback in the wii.
They just leaves M$ and Sony fighting over the remainder and M$ have done well, they seem to have a lock on 2nd position but more importantly ps3 sales will be luck to break 40 million this gen.
So they really have achieved their prime objective of destroying Sony's dominance in the industry, got a nice share of it for them self and can slowly plug away at their other plans.
-UBISOFT BOYCOTT!-
