its pennies for their bottom line and overall still hasn't made much profit if at all. But if they truly do support the 360 for several more years it should become quite profitable for them as the most profitable years of a console's life typically is the middle to end years. I think their next big thing is going to be in game / dashboard ad revenue because it is a new stream of money they are about to really untap. I am still surprised games don't ship with a game trailer that you are forced to watch like DVD's.
A lot of analysts have speculated that in the late 90's MS saw console gaming as a threat to their computer OS business especially with the ability for them to connect to the internet. The best way to defend the threat would be to "jump in" and get a piece of it. (think about this, why doesn't Xbox have a web browser? answer: Because they don't want you to quit buying windows)
