Who's to say Apple isn't going to make their own home system and force people to buy it as the only way to continue listening to their music? Anything's possible...

Brand Loyalty means very little to us Americans. Its more about the right marketing and buzz. MS has constantly added to the 360. The 360 today is worlds beyond where it was at launch. As they add more and more features to the system they keep it fresh and continue to create that buzz. MS probably would have ran away with this generation in the States by a landslide had they not had the hardware failures.

I don't think American gamers give a crap about the Xbox being made in America.  The people who care about that stuff are 40 + year olds who buy American cars and stuff.  17 year olds don't think about that stuff when it comes to entertainment.  Just about every country in the world is more patriotic in terms of consumer goods than America is.  But what IS the difference maker is that Microsoft catered to American tastes with their library and Xbox Live.  You hit that nail on the head perfectly. 

Well if Microsoft keeps doing what they're doing, then they've got my money. Prior to owning a 360, I'd only ever owned Nintendo consoles. Microsoft has given me a lot of bang for my buck, and I would by their 3rd generation console on day one.

so far i agree with Seece. mistakes can be made, and every gen is different so don't count on anything concrete just yet. the storm hasn't started yet its just the rain, so don't go looking to get to wet.

in other words the 8th hasn't started so don't jump the gun.

Americans love Americans brands? tell that to the Wii.

Certainly. The 360 isn't even doing 'THAT' well in North America despite numerous advantages that favor in the current landscape in North America. Xbox Live community, North America / WW headstart, Marketing , Pricing. The 360 has taken the role that the PS2 provided last generation, the solid staple gaming machine at a sweet spot in pricing with a compelling enough list of features and software. This is not some guaranteed position within the market. It just depends on the strategy that each company brings to the table.

That is the price range that children can have bought for them at Christmas or Birthdays or Black Friday shopping. This is the price range where new families, or young college age group can afford a cheap system as well.

This generation boiled down to pricing and hype. The Wii sold on price and hype for awhile. Once the hype died down for the Wii, a lot of the weaknesses it had came to the forefront. From that point and beyond it became a pricing war relative to features and software brought to the table.  PS3 has more features IMO but the price didn't justify that difference.

The PS3 has always just been too expensive for the casual NA gamer (To whom a majority of these consoles are sold) to justify when 90% of the libraries are identical and the graphics aren't even drastically different. So while the PS3 has rebounded and made a comeback, it completely missed the big casual boat this generation.


If Sony can position itself like they did with the Vita relative to the 3DS, you will see a very strong battle for North America between Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. And If I were wagering between Microsoft and Sony specifically.
It's actually quite amazing that Sony is even in this discussion with the absurd $600 price tag releasing as late into the generation as they did.

Silly topic is silly. Like psrock said, How do you lose something you don't have?

They'd get sued for trying something like that

The 360's success in US has little or nothing to do with MS being an American based business. Nothing. VERY few people even think that way anymore and definitely a tiny minority of gamers. Anybody that says otherwise is seriously trolling, as there is NO basis in fact for it.

OT: Of course they could lose the momentum they currently have. Why would ANYONE think otherwise??? Strangest question ...