1.Kinect Sports is bundled with the kinect. (Of course its going to sell more as a casual draw)

2. InFamous 2, Killzone and LBP are great......for gathering core gamers.

3. Microsoft had the core because they were the cheaper HD alternative and were more dedicated to the core back then (2005-2009). I say its a good change of pace, but dont just dont forget who brought them to the dance. Gamers are fickle today and will jump ship at any moment. Go to a gamestop or Play N Trade to see what I mean.

4.Exclusives don't mean anything to a casual, but peripherals do, which is why Kinect is beating out the Move. I don't think Sony can think of a periphoeral that alienates the core. The move is the core peripheral out of all three consoles motion controls, but the question is will the core still want it? Thats something only time will tell. Kinect is as simple as simple gets. Thats why Microsoft is having as easy a time where as Sony doesnt seem to be as invested.

5. I've realized Sony is more focused on core than the casual (but are still gaining) and Microsoft being focused on the casual are putting them on equal footing. A lot of gamers are jumping ship or having both consoles now that the PS3 is affordable.

6. The Kinect is bigger than the 360, just remember that. It will expand to the PC.

Theres nothing to be gained because of top exclusive games, eh? It's the reason Sony is gaining on Microsoft

no it isn't.

and now it's coming down to a mere 3 million consoles. The Kinect launch didnt stop Sony from gaining, it basically kept Microsoft making money. LOL....When Microsoft was focused on the core, it wasn't small. First of all, outside of PC gamers, who knows about the Witcher? No one. It wont sell that great on the 360 either because Microsoft is really showing how poorly they are invested in probably the best RPG of the year. E3 was not a great start if they wanted to throw the core a bone. Get this buddy, the Witcher 2 is based off of a known Polish book seires. If they publicized this properly it could help with their European sales for non-PC gamers whom im starting to think are mainly invested in the PS3 right about now.

Right now as far as the core go, MS is still concentrating on the big hitters, Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable ect. The Bioshock and ME 3rd party exclusives, Crackdowns, Viva Pinatas ect, have stopped, because they had very limited growth opportunity and yes, at this point in the gen they do nothing for HW sales.

P.S.

On a casual front I would've given Microsoft an A+ at E3, but with that said on the core front they are very week.

For gamers that browse this site, like you and I, they were weak I agree, we strive on new IP and such. But overall core, Gears, Halo and Forza in one holiday is big, not weak.

1.   Kinect Sports is not bundled with Kinect, no game ever has been other than Kinect Adventures so I have no idea where you pulled that from.

2.  Infamous 2, Killzone 3, and LBP 2 were great for gathering core gamers?  Then why do they have such lackluster sales?  I'm not argueing their quality I own all three and actually think Infamous 2 and Killzone 3 are both strong contendors for my personal GOTY so far but they aren't selling consoles in a significant way.

3.  MS has the core gamers because its a cheap HD console?  Or maybe you know it could be the fact that it has Gears of War, Halo, Fable, Forza an amazing online in Live, the strongest 3rd party support, and more JRPG's than the PS3 has? But no actually you must be right its because its cheap.

4.  Core gamers are buying Kinect as well though as has been proven by up to half or more of all Kinect sales went to people who already own a 360.  I don't understand why your defending Sony for not being able to create a product that appeals to everyone, the Move certainly hasn't and look at its software lineup, Sony tried to get the casual with it and failed.

5.  No one is jumping ship from 360 to PS3.  That just doesn't make sense.  Yes there are more and more multi-console owners but that is due to lower costs of the sytems.  Sony is the lead in yearly sales this year primarily due to brand name and blu-ray, with the exclusives its had giving it a very minor boost. That doesn't however mean they win the year, we'll see once the holidays come Gears is going to push the 360 hardware higher than Uncharted and COD traditionally sells more 360's than PS3's.  Not to mention we don't know how Kinect will impact things.

6.  Exactly.  MS has done an excellent job of creating an awesome piece of hardware with some real potential for growth behind it.

Listen I'm all for opinoins and all but don't just blindly defend Sony man.  If you want to argue that Sony has a better 1st party for core gamers and all I have no problem with that, but trying to undermine MS's strategy and stuff just seems a bit silly.

I don't care about what you think Nintendo franchises are, that's just an opinion (highly flawed and laughable one) but as of right now, and recently, it's factually wrong to say Nintendo are serving their core gamers more than MS theirs.

I'm sorry that the Xbox 360 is being outsold by both the Wii and PS3 regardless of the release of the Kinect.

I think the next Xbox will actually do better than the Xbox 360...  For starters they will have built up an enormous online community by the time the next system arrives and that could really helps to sell consoles.  They will be much more established in Europe as well compared to the time the 360 launched.  It's also not going into the next generation against a competitor with an overwhelming marketshare so they won't have to beg and bribe some companies to bring their major franchises to the system like they had to with the Xbox 360.

As for the $200 price advantage, the 360 originally needed that against the PS3 simply because the Playstation brand name was so strong at the start of this generation but that's hardly the case now.  Regardless there is still likely to be some price advantage as Sony won't be in a position to lose billions like they did with the PS3 and Microsoft can easily use some of the money they're making from Live to subsidize a lower price for the next Xbox.

If anything I think it's Sony that will be in a tough position when they launch their next console as almost all the advantages they had coming into this generation are now gone.  Some people will mention their first-pary exclusives but outside of the Gran Turismo series which now has ridiculous development times are they as strong as series like Halo and Call of Duty which are either exclusive on Xbox consoles or favoured by the developer on them?