Also, just as an addendum to my last post, we have to wonder what Microsoft and Sony make of their systems being lumped together after the previous generation which was almost totally defined and seemingly won and lost by exclusivity. What are they doing to change this perception? Do they even want to change this perception?
The sales of the current-gen consoles, while not explosive, have remained relatively steady. That said, the 360 and the PS3 have been essentially neck-and-neck since the begging of this generation. While one's initial reaction may be that the two companies would want to steer away from that, I'm not so sure. Microsoft is likely relishing the fact that the lion's share of third-party sales belong to them and yet Sony must certainly be reluctant to upset that same balance given their current market position. The two companies may be trying to utilize their first parties and respective feature sets to differentiate between one another as they jockey for second-place, yet neither of them have the necessary sway to cut off their interdependence. The situation cannot be ideal for either group, but I'd argue that their congruence is allowing them to lick their wounds and realign their strategies after what has been a woefully miscalculated generation for the two.
