I love how the Xbox image is an augmented image to remove the actual branding on the box to justify the article.

Microsoft isn't "consumer electronics" brand, and certainly wasn't when the Xbox console was released. Therefore, it would make sense to promote/advertise the product brand over the corporate brand.

Sony, on the other hand is known as a consumer electronics company. Therefore, weight is (or was) carried with a product including the Sony brand name. In fact, most of Sony's consumer electronics products have only a corporate logo, not a product branding.

If it was IBM, not Microsoft making a console, would you think it would be smart for IBM, a company not known for consumer electronics, but rather business electronics, to release an IBM GS3750 console or have a brand name device called the Warp console? The latter would justifiably do better in consumer's eyes simply because it's catchier and more exciting than the GS3750 (Yes, IBM product naming is that exciting).

Yeap... the article is saying this is a bad thing... I don't know yet.

Anyway the article was poorly written.

What's wrong with that sentence?

its not that sentence i was talking about. i just wanted to call him an idiot

This.  VGKing would be correct if Microsoft didn't have strong 3rd Party support.  Look at VGChartz software sales, for example.  Routinely the Xbox 360 version outsells the PS3 version.  The heres and whys of that aren't important, what is important to developers, is that they know if they put out a game on the Xbox 360 it'll sell.  The same should hold true for the Xbox 8.

Nintendo has suffered because it couldn't retain it's third-party support, often scoffing at them, and worse they couldn't attract them after the fact.

Between the Xbox and Xbox 360, Microsoft sat down with developers and asked them what they wanted, and Microsoft has continually made an effort to deliever that.  I don't think that's going to change any time soon.  Microsoft has always been a company of developers, built for developers.  So the day Microsoft fails to listen to developers is the first day in the end of Microsoft.

I don't think Microsoft's future plans are bad for the company at all.  I think they help to put the Xbox in a stronger position and into more homes.  Maybe this means that more people use the console for non-gaming purposes, but when those households have children or people need something to do during downtime, they can turn on their Xbox and play games.

I think this strategy is what scares a lot of Playstation loyalists.  If Microsoft succeeds in getting into more homes due to it's media and communication services, then it'll have a foothold in houses as a gaming system where one didn't exist before.  With that foothold, it undermines Sony's and Nintendo's chances of entering the household. 

Microsoft doesn't have to build it's core gamer business.  The evidence is there that it already exists and it's strong.  If both Sony and Microsoft are even next generation on core gamers, then the opportunity for growth is once again going to be in non-gaming, social gaming, and casual gaming.  Microsoft has been building its services up and making acquisitons to put it in a better position with non-gaming and social gaming. 

I don't see doom and gloom for Microsoft. 

As a current 4.0 student of English, who's instructor vowed she never gave A's out on drafts, but who routinely received A's on drafts, will say this.

"Xbox guy" is meaningless.  It has no value.  In order to offer weight to his opinion, he could have said "I've owned an Xbox (360) from the day it was released."  "Xbox guy" doesn't qualify whether the person just liked what Microsoft did with the Xbox (360), liked the Xbox (360), or owned the console.  I'm not debating he likes or doesn't like the Xbox.  Just that the weight of the statement "Xbox guy" is weak.

His paragraph structure, more so than his sentence structure is horrible, however.  Every sentence is it's own paragraph.  Every fricken sentence.  It'd have been better to break everything out into bullet points and leave it at that.

I've argued against the merits of the actual article elsewhere.

Microsoft is using the Xbox brand to push other parts of its business. Now, I dont' see that as a problem, but when the "other parts of its business" seems to be taking priority over games, that's when we should be cautious. Do we really want to support a video game console that puts gaming as secondary? Do we really want to support a video game console that is more like a high-end DVR/cable box?

I think Microsofts next-gen strategy will become clear on May 21st. I think this will only lead to more negativity.

A off topic question... for "X" I have to use "an" instead "a"? I mean I used "an" just when the next word is non-consonant (a, e, i, o and u)... maybe I'm wrong again

The use of "a" or "an" is based on the phonetic.  X in Xbox therefore phonetically is "ex".  Thus, "a" for Hero but "an" for herb. 

Didn't learn or know that one until I sometime recently (past year or so) finally looked it up because people were using it correctly in some places and incorrectly in others and it annoyed me.  As I mentioned to one of my fellow students, my writing has improved more due to communicating on forums than I ever got from a class. 

Thanks... I got it... really useful.