Where is Microsoft headed from here on out?

[couchmonkey]

Azelover said:

Xbox only came into being to stop Sony.

Sony is on top right now, therefore it is a failure. It will continue to exist as long as it makes money(other than Live, which isn't Xbox dependent), so if for one reason or another it goes back to bleeding, can't keep it around. They almost ditched it some years ago.

I agree that we should keep this in mind.  I'm not 100% sure if Xbox was a failure or not at blocking Sony from entering the home computing space...for sure mobile / tablets has proven to be the greater threat to home computing, but Xbox kept Sony locked in a war over gaming for a decade, anyway.  Then again, the backlash against the initial PS3 with it's price point and feature-heavy hardware may go to show there was never as much of a threat as Microsoft thought?

All that said, you're right. MS justified bleeding money to keep Sony from entering the PC market, but Playstation isn't the right form for a PC takeover anymore, there's no justification to lose money on Xbox.