While I think the 360's current position is more about Sony screwing up than MS doing a great job, I think buying exclusivity / timed exclusivity / getting last gen exclusives to go multiplat has helped them somewhat. If they are playing a long multi-generation game then you can't judge whether their strategy has worked by narrowly calculating the income vs. expenditure for each game during this generation. If the Xbox brand ends up being number 1 in 2 or 3 generation's time (I don't see it happening next gen, but you never know, it's Ninty's generation to lose at this point) then that success will be directly traceable back to what happened this generation. Then all who claimed moneyhatting was a waste will be chowing down on some major crow.
“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."
Jimi Hendrix