Not my opinion. WW>USA. C'mon, that much is obvious, right?

Anyway, this thread is about being no.1 WW, which is what 99.99% of people understand of being no.1. So if you're saying that MS will be no.1 in the US but not WW then you're agreeing with my OP.

I have a feeling the ps4 and xbox720 are going to release holiday 2013, coincidentally the same week. I know sony has stated they don't want to be last again, but they also said they are never first to release. Microsoft seems to want to ride out kinect for a while.

I also think the price not the year head start hurt sony this gen.

I really love that people try to downplay the Xbox 360 as a shooter box and a casual console without any core games left at the same time. It tells you that MS did a lot of things right.

Anyway: The main advantage Xbox 3 has over the competition is Xbox Live. 40 million users, with about 20 million paying for it won't stop using it when their whole gaming network is on that console. I think MS locked NA with all these apps that are really big in NA (ESPN, UFC, Nickelodeon, Skype (soon), HBO Go, Fox, Netflix, Zune, IGN). Nintendo does not seem to aim for it and Sony has to play a lot of catch-up in this segment.

Halo, Gears, Forza and Fable will be as popular as ever and with the new studios they just bought and opened, the timed exclusive Bungie game, the exclusive Crytek game and the integration of Xbox Live in Windows 8, which runs on something that shapes up to be the best tablet on the market, I see Xbox 3 in a MUCH stonger position than they were in 2005. And I see Sony in a much weaker position than they were before the PS3 and Vita.

They did pretty well launching the 360 before everyone else, so I think it's not a big deal.

I see some people using current console sales showing that MS is losing steam. Its surprising that many people are forgetting that the X360 has had the longest stretch of not having a price cut when comparing the other consoles. Both Wii and PS3 had a price cut last year.

Lets look at history of the X360 price cuts and when the last Official price cut was...

As you can see Technically the last Official price change on a Xbox 360 model was in August of 2009 when the dropped the price on the Elite model from $399 to $299. That was almost 3 years ago people!

In June of 2010 they introduced the S model 250GB at $299. That esentially replaced the Elite model. Then in August they released the S 4GB model which essentially replaced the Arcade model at $199.

Folks, the prices on the models have not changed since they were released in 2010. We are seeing the X360 slipping in sales considerably and is falling behind PS3 worldwide by roughtly 30,000 units per week. X360 is well due for a price cut or some type of new pricing. There are believe it or not consumers that are aware of this and are anticipating the price drop before they buy.

MS could go a couple different routes with this and apparently are just waiting for the right moment to do it. They could potentially scrap all bundles that don't include a Kinect and drop those models as so:

4GB console w/ Kinect from $299 to $199. 250GB console w/ Kinect from $399 to $299.

This would make it standard that for everyone buying a Xbox 360 they are also getting a Kinect device with it, thus improving the Kinect install base.

However this may anger some of the gaming community so I could see them doing something like this:

4GB console from $199 to $149. 250GB console from $299 to $249. 4GB console w/ Kinect from $299 to $199. 250GB w/ Kinect from $399 to $299.

The point of my post is to tell you guys that even though you may think MS is losing steam they are still in an extremely good position to have a sizeable price cut. Whereas Wii and PS3 had a price cut last year and are not in a position to have a sizeable price cut this year. If they do  it will likely put them in a worse financial situation than they are in now. But if everything is true about a new slim PS3 to enter the market it could be a model that Sony was able to reduce their costs with and will allow them a roughly $50 price cut. If that happens before MS...be sure a whole new price cut will hit for the X360 models.

OT

Yes they can afford it but it would not be in their best interest. If they launch either before or at the same time as PS4 that will be their best position. Launching more than a handful of months after a PS4 launch would not be a good idea, but I don't think it would put them considerably behind their competitors.

They cant because they need a headstart to offset Japan.

I guess that MS is hoping the WiiU wont make as big a splash and will be able to catch up over time. But with PS4 it is essential MS releases first to secure NA and make up for PS4 gains in Japan.

I don't see how they can be #1 worldwide when they aren't dominate in Japan and Europe like america. And who knows if they'll keep their North American dominance next gen. Anything could happen.

But it's not just about how many price cuts, it's about overall price. PS3 was outselling X360 even when it was more expensive. Now that they have similar prices it still is. I'd say the PS brand has the edge WW.

Even if they were about equal it would still not be in MS's interest to launch last.

Being first isn't always the best plan... Dreamcast ended up being dominated by PS2 and the graphically superior X360 got pounded by Wii.

If Microsoft continues to focus on bringing the console experience to PCs (Windows Live, X360 controller & Kinect support), they could easily be back on top.