2 weeks

What happened with Xbox is a result, a DIRECT result, of putting a product on shelves and viewing it as a product instead of having a love and passion for it. Nintendo IS gaming. That's all they freakin' do. Criticize all you want, but the men and women who make games like Animal Crossing, along with the president himself, truly have a passion and love for games and their ability to bring joy to the world. This is why they have stayed afloat for so long. It's not enough to make something that you think will make money. You have to BELIEVE in it, and love it as well.

Xbox has been nothing but a cold, sterile "product" for many years now and this is why it's crumbling. No vision, no passion and absolutely NO soul behind the brand what so ever. Video games aren't mops or paper plates. They're as much art as they are a product. When you have a bunch of ceo, suit wearing egg heads dipping into the world of "art", it's always going to end poorly.

When you find a shareholder that comes out and say they want the division sold let us know.  If shareholders want anything done it will happen and that would include any corporation.  If you are using investors and getting the 2 confused you need to know how much pull investors have on MS.

No, I am saying that MS and Sony have a plan to deliver their services to consumers using the upper end product like consoles and using lower end products like PS TV.  During the rumor days for this generation, it was stated that MS was looking to rebrand the 360 to enter the lower market.  I believe this play is still on the books.  Right now only Sony has a upper and lower tier device. What i am saying is that the market is going to get a lot more competitive as these bigger companies enter the market and we could see many different types of hardware to cater to consumers different needs.  I also includ Valve Steam PC into this category as they may present an upper and lower end device dependant on vendor.

A product is just a product no matter how much love you put into it.  I am sure Nintendo put a lot of love and thought into the WiiU but still suffered much with the console.  Having a vision that conincide with consumers is way more important then passion.  Passion blinds you to your consumers wants and needs and limit a company to what they believe is the correct path.

As to your 2nd paragraph, I will just say that most of your opinion i do not agree.  Each company has stumbled on their way to success.  Sony is not where they are today because they were dominate last gen, instead they got there because of very real competition from MS and Nintendo.  All 3 console makers have very clear vision, its the execution of that vision which is what make or break them.  Last gen it almost cost Sony big but they turned it around.  Now its MS turn and they also seem to be turning the ship around.  Nintendo seems to keep sailing where they want.

I saw this article awhile back http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/02/05/investors-want-microsofts-new-ceo-to-kill-xbox-bing-and-surface/

Yep, read the same article a while back. As mentioned in the article, the new CEO is being advise by Gates and software the direction he is going is still in line with Gates vision.

Consumers is such a generic term and can mean lots of things. I think what Nintendo does on the business side of things, is look at long term goals. Sony and MS chase trends. Nintendo tries to look past them or flat out make them all by themselves. That's why they have been turning a profit for damn near their entire run as a game maker. 

But at the heart of this, is the fact that, like I said, they ARE games. This is all they do. They don't make OS for mobile and PC machines, tv's, portable music players, cell phones or try to make "entertainment machines." They make GAME CONSOLES and GAMES...period. I think that level of dedication and passion, that leads to knowledge and that knowledge allows them to succeed where other fall. 

I would agree with you on MS and Nintendo.  Gaming for MS is a possible extra market to make some money out of.  Nintendo IS gaming (regardless of how much many people do not like their games).  I do not really agree with you on Sony though.  Sony wants gaming to save their company and/or other Sony products (Think about it.  PS1 = CD, PS2 = DVD, PS3 = BlueRay, PS4 = Saving Sony).  It started out as a good way to upsale their other technologies, but now its morphed into a possible savior for the Company.

Actually Sony brought long term goals to the industry. They brought ten year planning. Nintendo generally has shorter gens than Sony. Microsoft copied Sony's ten year plan because they have no plans of their own but to dispatch Sony. Gaming is now one of Sony's bread and butter points so they are trying to cover every base. The only uninspired group out of everyone really is Microsoft.