If those Natal prices are true and the new baseline price of a 360 will be $299 this holiday (assuming all 360s will come with Natal), Microsoft will have handed Sony second place imo.

But that's a big if. The rumored pricing makes no sense to me.

Yes, and they will never again be in the 360s favor. Whatever helps you sleep at night I guess *rolls eyes again* 

It'll help me sleep at night if you actually learn to read and understand that what Im saying here is that it's not the ps3 will definitly get 2nd place but rather that it has a very high chance to take it. *shakes head and leaves in shame of wasting time with you*

OH GEE LOOK HOW FAST THIS TURNED INTO A BANNING TRAP, EVERYONE STOP ARGUING QUICK!!!

I think so. If the gap has been closing as steady as it is. Since it's been out of the upper crusts' price range for a while, and is now affordable within the average person's paycheck. The rest of the world was waiting on it too.

Now will it get to second place in the US market? I don't think so, personally. The head start is little too broad, and MS is pretty territorial about this market. Plus, the gaming market is split between the casual and the hardcore right now. Sony and MS fighting the battleground on the hardcore front, Nintendo with the casuals in one broad sweep. With these two fighting for the same audience, there's nothing they can really do more at this point to one up each other, that wouldn't involve suicidal price drops at least. A run at motion controls isn't going to cut it. They make expensive systems even that more expensive, and may not have the longevity among the current userbase they think it would. As far the casuals, well, they have a Wii already.

But, yes. I think the gap will close. Unless Natal truly ends up being a miraculous piece of tech that everyone's going to want, it could end up going in MS's favor. But I can't make that call yet.

unless theres a huge 360 boost at the end of the year, then the ps3 should be ahead by the end of march 2011. also have any of you realised how everything is shifting from 360 to ps3? like im starting too see multi games being advertised with only ps3 or with the ps3 as the lead version. as the ps3 userbae gets bigger, more and more developers are gonna favour it.

100% correct my friend, iforgot GT5 was releasing so sales will defo boost for ps3 there!

I have to agree with that, the rumored Natal pricepoints are nonsensical.  As is the fact that 360's cost of entry hasn't changed since 2008.  I'm starting to think Microsoft is purely putting profitability ahead of marketshare now, since their main rival and reason for even entering the market (Sony) is in such a diminished position.

TBH I'm starting to think that way.  I know a lot of 360 fans are sure MS will invest and do whatever it takes to stay in second place, make Natal easily affordable, etc.  but I wonder if that's really their focus now.

MS are guaranteed a much better LTD on 360 than Xbox, plus they've gained great traction in US and UK plus made decent inroads in Europe.

Live is considered generally the Gold standard for online and they've done very well with SW.

However, since they first started investing in Xbox they've spent a fortune to now sit in a profitable position (maybe not total lifetime of their Xbox business but on a recent quarterly basis) and with Sony having tripped themselves up and Wii slowing YOY I wonder whether they're going to focus more on slowly growing the brand - with Natal core to that - while remaining profitable knowing that, even if they slip to third in the end, they're in a great position for the launch of their next console and by any measure compared to the Xbox the 360 has been a huge success.

With first place long gone to the Wii whether the Wii does dip slowly from now on, I wonder if they'll really decide to drop prices like crazy to remain in second place rather than play it careful and steady now they're firmly established in the marketplace.

Of course, they might feel coming third in the end would tarnish their efforts with 360, but I'm beginning to doubt that.  By the time PS3 passses 360 I don't think anyone's going to be painting it as a big loss for MS, rather more of a victory in terms of how well they held of the supposed easy winner and how much they grew their marketshare and how they saw so many franchises hit their ecosphere.

second place is guaranteed