No. Microsoft's main reason for joining the gaming industry was to cut into Sonys multimedia marketshare, much like they did with Apple. They want the living, room the games were always second to them but they knew in the beginning they had to get the third parties Sony was associated with on their side. They couldnt deal with shareholders telling them to back out of the gaming industry after losing so much on the original Xbox. They rushed the 360 to beat Sony to the next gen because Sony is established and they knew they couldnt beat Sony if they both launched head to head.

Again you can't understand the words that are coming out of my mouth have you even read what I said about how Nvidia screwed over Microsoft on the original X-Box.  Also nobody is really afraid of Sony nothing against the Playstation but you do realize that Sony was at the height of their power during the Walkman craze.  Microsoft was a bigger company long before the first Playstation launched.  Nintendo was around before the key people that founded Sony where even born.  The only company that was afraid of Sony when it came to launching a console was Sega with the Dreamcast but they where afraid of Nindento long before that.  Also when it comes to being a multimedia device the 360 is better then PS3 and that would have been the same no matter when it lauched.  But keep on living in a dream world where everyone is afraid of Sony if it makes you happy.  Even though Sony as a whole is pretty much on a radip decline.  Also what you said about Microsoft holds even more true for Sony the reason they got into the gaming industry is because they wanted a piece of Nitendo's multimedia marketshare plus they have been losing marketshare when it comes to electronics ever since the decline of the popularity of the Walkman.

You're walking around the reality. You dont care about the articles, just your defense. This is pointless. Microsoft was afraid of Sony (It's healthy when your competition is that dominant) and they knew the only way to beat them was to become like them and launch themselves ahead of them so that when the consumers saw them, they couldnt tell the difference which is why eventually the 360 and PS3 were referred to as the "HD Twins". I posted three different articles pointing to the same issue as to why the 360 was rushed. Show me an article on Nvidia being the reason the 360 was rushed. Its completely clear Microsoft knew they had faulty hardware and DID NOT CARE as long as they launched on time. This is my last post because unless you have something to support this point you're making.

Why would Microsoft make a big deal about being screwed over by Nvidia, would that really make a lot of business sense.  In business you try to make more friends then enemies even when you get screwed over big time once in a while like Nvidia did with the GPU for the original X-Box.  I know the truth behind one of the main reasons the 360 was launched early but you can keep on living in a dream world where everyone is afraid of Sony.  Even though besided the Walkman and the Playstation their only claim to fame is launching formats that fail like Betamax, Digital Audio Tape, Mini Disc, ATRAC Audio Compression, Memory Stick and UMD.  The reason that had to lauch when they did is because they couldn't make anymore new original X-Box's after Nvidia stopped making the GPU in August of 2005.  The only thing they where afraid of was not having any consoles on the market for a long time.  Also the original X-Box was in production for a shorter time then the Gamecube and it still sold almost 3 million more console and the Gamecube was alway cheaper and had a fire sale towards the end of its life something the original X-Box never had since all its cosoles where sold long before that.  So Microsoft outsold the orginial and still true king of video games on its first try yet they launched the 360 early since they where afraid of Sony that makes a lot of sense to no one.

Damn I can't even believe that the failure rate was that bad to begin with!

It still doesn't explain the rush though. If the deal with Nvidia fell through, then MS could delay the XB launch. Why patch that up by launching sooner than the damage repair called for?

I sense rose-tinted glasses.

Wow, if Microsoft outsold the true king go video games (rightfully Nintendo), imagine how much Sony massacred them with the PS2.

Nah, don't downplay what Sony was able to do in the market, the history of it is etched in stone. They managed to set Sega to their manufacturing grave. That's a tragic yet collosal feat on the part of Sony. Only 6 years ago, the Playstation was undefeatable. The thing the 360 did against the PS3 is another remarkeable feat, and S.T.A.G.E. is most likely right to say that MS did everything in their power to weaken Sony's presence in the living room.

Hopefully Nintendo will be able to piggyback onto silly old MS and regain its rightful place as king of the videogame console market.

I sense more rose tinted glasses from people that think they launched the 360 because they where afraid of Sony.  Again they had to lauch the console when they did because they couldn't make any more new orginial X-Box's since they didn't have any more GPU's after "August of 2005" and trust me the relatioship between Nvidia and Microsoft went sour years before that so they screwed them over since they had to find a new developer for the GPU of the 360 and they basically killed the original X-Box.  Also month without any new consoles to sell would have hurt Microsoft a lot more then the RROD did.  That pretty much what killed Atari because they couldn't figure out what to do after the 2600 (releasing tons of bad games for it also didn't help). The 5200 should have never been released and the 7800 lauched too late.  And by the time they tried to come back with the Jaguar nobody cared.

If Microsoft is so omnipotent and unscared of Sony, why did they _need_ to have xboxes being shipped to consumers at all times, when only six years prior they weren't even in the console business.

None of this makes any sense.

They wanted to stay in the console business you stay in the console business by always having a console on the market and widely available.  Again not having a console available for purchase would have hurt them more then the RROD ever did.  Nintendo never took a break and had a period where their where no Nintendo consoles on the market neither did Sony or Sega when they still where in the console business.  As a matter of fact Sega could have been in the console business a while longer if they didn't have supply issuses during the Dreamcasts early life.  Between the 2600 and the Atari Jaguar their where periods where there where no Atari consoles available or if they where only on a limited basis.  Even though WB, Universal, and Paramount have all been making movies for over 90 years you don't think it would hurt them a whole lot if for some crazy reason they decided not to release a new movie for over a year.  Also the original X-Box was only available for four year from 2001 till the end of 2005.  The 360 launched on November 22, 2005 a little more then four year after the original X-Box which launched on November 15, 2001.