It will help out the gate but in the long term it will be determined by what the system offers.

Why go first, when your competitors can look at your specifications and come up with something better?

hmm, I've been wondering the same thing. I think they are doing on purpose so that they can announce it close to when it will go on sale to keep its hype going and also to steal or take some of the PS4's hype.

MS can have their event and announce a price at the same time while Sony can't/won't/i have bet money on that/ do that tomorrow.. they'll announce the new PS and will wait for a price announcement after MS have shown theirs.. which is a bit weaker in marketing terms.. will be a good study case in terms of marketing..

If Sony announces a price tommorrow MS will be in pole position to crush them..

Yep. They know Sony is going to go for the core gamer, so they'll go for the living room and then the games. If they can push the Kinect to grow in the mass media it will be right next to the cable box in the house. Hell the Xbox 720 might become the cable box next gen. I think they will.

We are talking about announcing not releasing. As for that Microsoft is in front when it comes to 3rd party support. Their behind the scenes shows started a few months before Sony's so their should be more games out for the new Xbox when compared to the PS4.

As for launching it looks like something simular to the PS3 senerio again. By rumors it looks like they will be the most expensive, most powerful and they will release second a few weeks before Microsoft. And if history is anything to go by the most expensive, most power systems seldom does well.

No, Sony blows it's wad tomorrow and there's nothing they can do for the rest of the year to increase the hype further until actual launch. Nintendo has shat itself with Wii U to date, so they have nothing going for them...for now.

I think MS has something big cooking, or they think they have something big cooking, and they expect to steal the hype train when they do their reveal.

In many ways if the launch window is the same or close to each other the last to announce gets an advantage, if they have something impressive to show.

MS will bring something strong, and I expect it to impress. MS may have won the staring contest with Sony.

Wow - one exclusive, flawless victory, fatality. Silent and fast.

MS have been acquiring a ton of studios, retail, XBLA, and kinect based. I think they will appeal to the core gamer and regain their trust once again, while pushing the media hub to the casuals. Everybody wins....its a delicate balance but I think MS is aware that they need the gamers back on their side if they are to win.

My 2 biggest hopes are that MS inplements "Xbox Plus", it would go a long way to help justify Gold to the nay-sayers.

Secondly would be to announce second, yet release before Sony, ultimate trolling on MS's part!

Really, so E3 and Gamescom mean virtually nothing to you?