Slim + Natal + Price drop + Gears of war 3 = Slim + Natal + Price drop

Really GeOW3 won't do anything, if someone wanted to play GeOW then they would have gotten a 360 when GeOW2 was announced as 360 exclusive.

Natal will only push consoles if it is supported by the right games and marketing.

Slim and price drop could do wonders for the 360 but neither are official.

uh, no. That's not fact. That's you assuming that it is a fact. Fact would be Microsoft announcing Slim + pricedrop on E3. There's a difference, you know.

We'll have to wait and see. I think expectations are a bit TOO high, though.

Impossible, Sony has

Slim Slim + PS Move + $200 price drop + Halo 9001 = EPIC WIN FUCK YOU MICROSOFT!

See, all of these things have been officially confirmed, you'll see at E3...

PS. See what I did there?

If the Slim and Price Drop are true that would certainly help sales though I doubt you have any insider information so it would be nice if you stop acting like you're certain of it.

I'm unsure how Natal will affect things, may or may not help sales to an appreciable degree.

GeoW3 definitely won't help sales, it makes little sense for a game in its third iteration on the same platform to move sales regardless of the popularity of the series.

According to TheSource, it equals 2 million less sales for the 360 than last year.

On a related note, I wonder what would be the effect of a re-tooled (cheaper manufacturing cost) 360 with a smaller case ("slim") and integrated HDD for $199 to replace both the Arcade and Elite SKUs. No Natal in such a bundle. $249 with.

There's no information that confirms such a thing is forthcoming, but this does more or less represent the best case, realistic scenario for a new 360 SKU that is "guaranteed" a huge, permanent sales spike on par with the $299 PS3.

At this point in the generation it's too late to be playing the "lose on hardware, make up in software" game by constantly slashing MSRP below manufacturing cost, so unless MS can make consoles significantly cheaper than they already are, there won't be any major price cuts to permanently stimulate sales.

So that $149 Arcade/Natal bundle? Probably not happening.

Natal, if anything will simply keep the 360 relevant to new consumers without requiring an all new platform that will more or less reset any gains MS has made this generation. This does not mean runaway sales.

GeoW3? How about Halo Reach??? Seriously, the beta has been IMMENSELY fun and I'm anything but a hardcore Halo player. Its the big game for the 360, not GeoW3 (still waiting for 2 to outsell 1; seriously, I think its a great game).

The real wild card IS Project Natal. I really don't think people here are giving it enough of a chance to be a huge success for Microsoft. Maybe that's it; console fundamentalism isn't allowing them to see it. But E3 is not far away and we'll finally see what MS and its partners have up for whatever the final name of Project Natal is going to be. Only thing left at that point is the public responding with dollars in hand.

For the record, anybody that thinks that hype cannot push a decent product into being a full on phenomenon, I give you the iPad ...

Halo Reach? Well said! I'm starting to like it more and more! :)

As for the septics, I will be back to this topic when E3 arrives, don't want to flame or anything.

I'm still skeptical about natal. All I see so far is a lot of hype. But if they show gears 3 working on natal and it

plays better than a normal controller then ill be sold on natal actually being something worthy of a buy.