This is the XBOX 360's LAST chance to perform in Japan.

[Aiemond]

Pristine20 said:

Words Of Wisdom said:

You've missed Microsoft's whole point.

Making money in this venture is obviously positive and they've been profitable in a few quarters, but most of that is taking a backseat to hurting Sony and establishing themselves in the media center environment. Whether or not Star Ocean 4 sells a lot of consoles is gravy as it's a brutal blow to PS3 fans.

The business is about making money. To shell out all that cash for a "brutal blow" is stupid. Why do you think Sony isn't throwing cash around? Because they are trying to make a profit. After finally attining profitability, M$'s answer is to throw money at games that probably would've been multiplatform anyway. This is why Sony is probably just standing by. SO4 will come to PS3 no matter who tells you otherwise except M$ has gone as far as to spend more money than the profits attinable by the game's sales. I'm starting to theink this console war is about Bill Gates desire to win somebody rather than a business. With Sega'a funds, M$ would've been out of the industry before now.

 Your missing the whole point. Microsoft feels by defeating the playstation in japan that it will hurt the PS brand everywhere. Trends begin there in gaming. Second, the whole idea of the xbox is to keep sony from having a multimedia center in the living room that competes heavily with microsoft. IF the PS brand went like sony wanted with no compitition from MS then MS would loose alot of its other products as well. Remember this is just not gaming this is the much more to these companies. 

 So, microsoft killing sony in japan is the goal, making money on the way to doing this is just a bonus. By defeating sony's multimedia hub MS believes it will have more profibility long term. This is a spend money to make money later scenario.