Just a cheap shot at MS' boasting and its urge to crush Sony (pointless, now that Ninty is the console market leader and Android is the new threat for Windows outside of office use), I won't deny what XB360 is achieving beyond its 5th year is really noteworthy.

Why? because it suits you, of course.

Funny how Wal Mart take a loss on Wii's, even after a price cut earlier in the year, on a product that probably isn't making them nearly as much as X360, yet MS had to pay for these deals as if the retailers couldn't manage them themselves.

What did they discount the Wii?  $50 additional dollars for one week?  And this is a system that for most of the year hasn't been selling too well, so they probably were trying to get rid of extra stock, as well.  We're talking about stores just throwing $100 at customers every week for the holidays.  If it were for a week or two, than yea, I  could see it being from the store itself.  But, since its had deals going for it for about 2 months now, then I highly doubt the stores are willing to take that kind of a hit for MS. 

You got a weak case. Maybe it's the fact that 360 is one of the top entertainment products in the US and Kinect probably one of the most wanted console accessories that makes the deals attractive - after all Supermarkets think this way - when people come in to purchase consoles etc there is an off chance that they'll do their weekly shopping at the same time there instead of having to drive elsewhere at the same time. It's a gamble that ALL supermarkets take, without a credible source you're just shooting in the dark, and your shots are laced with bias.

Yet, you don't have a credible source to back your side up, either.  So I could just as well say your case is weak.  I'm just using common sense.  Stores do you use giftcards and discounts to get additional customers in their stores for Black Friday and a few weeks in Dec, but these deals have been going on for weeks before Black Friday, as well as them being pretty consitent between stores.  The 360 is popular in the US, but it has been beaten before during the holidays.  I just find it interesting that just about everyone is shelling out $100 giftcards for just the 360.  My guess is that MS decided to reimburse stores for these special deals, as opposed to doing a pricecut this year. 

You're the one that called it, I have nothing to prove, if anything you do. You say that MS lines the backpockets of supermarkets - yet you pulled that out of thin air, this isn't the first time a gift card is introduced you know, and most of the time it IS the supermarkets willing to take the hit to attract customers, after all Christmas/New Years shopping is massive in most cases, so securing those sales means profits elsewhere and possible return custom. You think you're using common sense, you're really not, you're just biased and crying wolf when there is nothing to cry about.

Btw, trying the whole religion approach of "You can't prove I am wrong, so prove that you're right" doesn't automatically make it true.

Unless there is a solid reputable source - such as supermarkets/ms/employees etc stating it themselves, other than some low-end blog, then I don't know where on earth you got that idea from.

just goes to show how much the corporations are actually profiting. you think if one store has a discount the others wouldnt follow? once in the store they have you.

1. It was a special edition Blue Wii that was only made for Black Friday weekend and only sold by Walmart and SAMS Club

2. It was a straight out discounted price. Not a gift card deal which forces people to spend more money at the same store or even forget to use. I saw this week on the news the $41 billion in gift cards have never been redeemed.

PS3 will probably win, but the 1.5 million lead they built up in 2011 just about completely evaporated. At the end of the year their gain will only be about 200K for 2011. Considering the PS3 also has Japan, that's not too impressive at all. The Xbox 360 did it without a large amount of exclusives. Imagine if they had they same number of exclusives as the PS3 did. I think things would be completely different right now.

Yeah, the poor old 360 only had USA and huge holiday discounts.  It had no chance to overcome the massive Japanese market...

The reality - both devices are going to finish pretty much even and both utilised different approaches to discounting the price to the consumer, PS3 with a formal full price cut (which makes sense for a less seasonal device) and the 360 with huge seasonal discounts (which makes sense for a heavily seasonal device) - doesn't that imply they did equally well in their respective strong markets with appropriate pricing strategies or am I missing something?