Is 2008, the beginning of the end for the Canadian Conservative Government?

What I'd like to know is what where the expectations for the 360 (from MS)?

Knowing the goals being attempted are necessary to really judge how the console is doing.

For example, is MS wanted to gain stong foothold in NA built around FPS/online while exceeding Xbox outside US but knowing they would likely still finish behind competition outside US then it's doing pretty well.

On the other hand if they thought by releasing early and spending large sums on exclusives they'd get a lead that would guarantee them the top spot for consoles sold through 2008 and beyond then the Wii has already put paid to that (and to PS3 for the moment too).

The games industry is large and growing - and MS themselves might not have thought they'd do anything but improve on Xbox while still finishing behind Sony and Nintendo... or maybe they really did think they could take the lead with their second console to market.

For me, without understanding MS goals for the console this kind of thread is redundant.

In short Yes.

But I leave you with this to ponder

The day I was born was the begining of the end for me.

The 360 has only two options now.
1. Drop price
2. Make new AAA IP's that can rival big Sony releases.

Option 1, depending on how much Sony has dropped costs of PS3 development, might be bad if Sony could retaliate with an equal price drop.
The PS3 at $299 and 360 at $249 could be bad news because it would cause a huge increase in sales, with pricing currently being more of an issue for PS3 than 360. The increase might be much more in Sony's favor than the 360.

#1 would be better if #2 was true.

But who, at this point, would really make a 360 exclusive without huge compensation? The 360 has shown that most epic titles would have to be shooters, but it would have to surpass quality of COD4 to be worthy of good sales. It would also have to surpass games like Resistance 2, Gears 2, KZ2, etc to get the attention it needs to be AAA. Its a huge hurdle to overcome. Too many good games will release this year, including a good amount of IP's that head up the best selling ever category. (GT5,GTA,FF,Gears,MGS)

It really comes down to how much Microsoft is willing to pay to win this console war. Will they lose profitability and pay off developers to maintain a lead of a few million consoles?

Its about potential of consoles, and right now the PS3 has potentially the best games of this generation, potentially a UI that is revolutionary, potentially the only HD format disc format built in, and potentially has all of this for a production cost within $100 of the 360.

The 360 won't die off, but unless it can pull off a MUCH stronger year this year without Halo 3, and with a more competitive PS3 in both pricing and AAA software, I would have to say that the 360 is in trouble.

Just my opinion though.

Wow, Magnific0, take a chill pill and get off that Kool-Aid. Your fanboy glasses must help with the flaming... Somehow... o_0

Anyways, 360 can finish last but will still be a success for MS because they're making money with it now. Yay for them.

Some of you crack me up.

You don't realize that last year you missed a great year in gaming because of your ignorance towards the Xbox 360. You sit there and argue how the system is in trouble in 2008 and how you are waiting for the PS3 domination to start with the release of "killer" games while you you haven't played Bioshock, Halo 3, Gears of War, Orange Box...

No wonder you are acting like there is too much sand in your vagina.

I'm not going to say one way or the other cause the thread is much like the 'is the ps3 a failure thread.' I do think the 360 is in trouble because I can't see it winning in any region except the US. Even there (here), they'd still be beaten out by the wii.

On the whole, 07 was a very strong year for 360 software and very medicore for the ps3. Despite this (and the fact that the ps3 didn't drop it's primary sku to $500 till september), hardware sales were neck and neck the entire year. Do I think the 360 is dead? No. But with the market flooded with fps games, it will take something more then halo to keep it in line with the ps3.