@assets point
profit is the ultimate determiner. Yes, assets can help you weather bad quarters, but when you have a bad quarter and you need more money what do you do? Sell assets. Which assets do you sell? The ones that are causing you to lose money. Which assets are causing Sony to lose money? Right now, Erricson and Playstation are two that come to mind.
Now, if Sony had good cash reserves, then they wouldn't need to sell any assets and they could dig into their back pocket and use some of their spare cash.
(note, obviously there are other ways to get money, but just showing that just because you have assets doesn't mean that they won't sell off the gaming devision)
Nintendo has huge cash reserves, along with profitable product line, and no real reason to leave the market, and you peg them as the most likely to leave. What business sense is that?
Do I think Sony or Microsoft will leave the console market? Maybe, but I wouldn't bet my money on it. Will Nintendo stay in the market? Most likely, and I'd bet a lot that they will.
