That's true, but I'm sure investors are pretty burned with the XBox endeavour in general. Out of the three generation MS has participated, only this one is getting them profits, the rest were plagued with losses. If they have do something that might smell like losses, investors might force them to make a complete retooling of the brand (or even selling it in the worst case scenario).

That would probably be the biggest dick move in all of gaming history, I mean to buy a PC centric company that actually stood up when MS left PC gaming for a number of years and then take away a game made popular on the platform to become exclusive to their console would probably kill any and all hope they have for a chance at winning back the PC market along with other fans in general. Buying out studios, devs and IP's just isn't a really good idea, it sounds great on paper most of the time but a lot of the time it means less of an audience, loss of fans and money in the longrun which leads to some IP's even dying off and studios closing (which we've seen a lot of the past decade alone).

I feel it would be better if MS just rides it out this gen, same with Nitnendo, the two of them taking focus and putting it towards creating their own IP's and working externally with other studios like they did with Insomniac, they allowed them to keep their own IP while Sony originally wanted to own it, Insomniac is such a studio that proves devs can and will want to own their ideas and still hold onto them, MS could gain more partners in the future by allowing this than simplying buying them up and hoping they deliver and don't complain.

Hopefully by next gen both MS and Nintendo will have learned from this current gen and show what they have learned via new marketing, hardware and innovations.

At this point, Nintendo could only do so much on their own supporting both 3DS and Wii U. We have witnessed how difficult it has been for them in these past few years. Nintendo has pretty done whatever it could with Wii U, releasing its biggest franchises (with Zelda coming next year), supporting indies, and creating new experiences (Splatoon, Mario Maker, Nintendo Land, Wonderful 101, etc.). But alas, third parties never came back after a year with the Wii U as sales were down, lack of titles on a consistent basis (besides indies and small-budget games), and not wanting to take on the task of porting on a console that is different from the other two consoles that are similar in design and more advanced than Wii U. Thus, 3.5 to 4 years is probably all Nintendo could do in terms of fully supporting Wii U. They've hired more people over the last few years and increased their employment, but they are still considered a smaller company than Sony or Microsoft, thus the quantity of games is low, especially when 3DS is getting its share of games from Nintendo per year. NX is their new focus for now and I cannot really blame them. A price drop might help, but they might as well gain as much profit as they can with what they have for now and just bundle games like Splatoon and Smash Bros., their two hottest commodities along with Mario Kart 8 and Mario Maker.

As for Xbone, they can still do better even as they improved a bit in terms of their management and business direction. However, they are not able to get a share of the games that are coming to PS4 like SFV (due to Sony paying for development), the JRPGs that are coming (since Xbone is basically minuscule in Japan), and others. So, they are getting the short end of the stick in terms of multiplats. They could try to make more first-party games like what Phil Spencer suggested. However, I am not sure what kind of game could really help them if Halo 5 was not able to really take off like it needed to. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong since I haven't caught up with Microsoft too much lately. I mean in the end, they are doing better, but, of course, there is the PS4..

MS buying Valve? Need a few billion dollars.

The most hilarious thing is that people think Microsoft will use their loads of cash for gaming division. If they try to do shareholders will probably push for sale as the gaming division Is a small part of the company. And "poor" Sony keeps investing in games and new studios (like today's hideo kojima).

First I want to know what comeback Sony did. They never had a console that sold less than 80 million. The only failure they know is that one time slightly missing top selling console.

For Microsoft I really don't know. Sony has completely pilaged their 3rd party deals that the 360 thrived on and I HIGHLY doubt Sony will let up. Halo has not been the juggernaut everyone expected this gen with one buggy collection and 5 being less well received sales wise than they hoped. The only thing MS can do is keep trying to build up a stable foundation of in house exclusives and keep fighting and hope they get a second wind.


Nintendo, on the other hand, has the foundations but they key word is *aggression*. Bold titles, aggressive advertising, aggressive pursuit of 3rd parties. Nintendo needs to go into every gen the same way they did with the NES, SNES, N64, and Wii: big and bold, with hits out of the gate and big advertising pushes. This whole timid approach like with Wii U cannot and will not ever yeild a win. Nintendo needed to kick down the door in 2012 not E3 2014, that's way too late. Nintendo also needs to balance their game releases to have broad appeal immediately. Have your Fire Emblems (which should be a freaking graphical showcase on home consoles; it would NOT be hard given the mechanics), F-Zeros, Metroid, Xenoblades, and Zeldas mixed in with your Marios, Kirbys, Mario Karts, and Donkey Kongs. And keep reaching out to devs looking for homes. Last Story, Bayonetta 2, and Wonderful 101 represent brilliant uses of that strategy to bulster their already formidable stable. Nintendo has the arsenal, they just need to USE it and it would be them and Sony duking it out rather than their current situation.

HOWEVER, this is all future.  As for now, all they can do is hold on.  Nintendo can and should cut the Wii U's price but other than that they've done about all they can.

XboxOne is actualy selling better than Xbox360, but I dont see how MS can achive PS4 levels of sales.
Wii U cant have much better sales whatever Nintendo will do, espacily when probably we will have NX launch next year.

Tbh, after the PS4 constantly outsold the Xbox One in America (even for me, im surprised), next year PlayStation lineup, and now the Kojima partnership. Everything now seem perfectly for the PS4 to continue it domination.

The Xbox One probably won't ever catch up to the PS4 or even near there, but it will remain very healthy and profit spot thanks to 3rd party support and the giant Microsoft.
In short, unless Sony screw up their own sh%te. The PS4 is unbeatable.

Nintendo has done just about all they could do with the Wii U except Zelda. And that isn't going to just magically make the system fly off the shelves for a long period of time and chance it from failure to success. No single game can do that.
Their is zero hope left for the Wii U. It is dead. And Nintendo knows it. That's why they are shifting their focus to NX.
And their main priority should be to learn from the mistakes they made with the Wii U, (and 3DS, because the 3DS didn't get off to hot start either.) So that they can ensure that the NX gets off to a very hot start right out of the gate and execute its concept perfectly so that it'll sell immediately. Drop the Wii/DS brand entirely. Give it a different name (personally I'd prefer the UNES - Ultimate Nintendo Entertainment System. I'm hoping for that Fusion concept to be true as well, because, it truly would be the Ultimate Nintendo machine, hence, Ultimate Nintendo Entertainment System.) Bring 3rd parties back by having the architecture and power similar to Sony and Microsoft's systems. Strong Virtual Console library. Extremely affective marketing campaign.

As for Microsoft. Next year is looking very grim for them, seeing the lineup that the PS4 has for 2016 with Uncharted IV, Persona 5, The Last Guardian, and now Sony and Activision are buddy-buddy with Call of Duty being marketed under the PlayStation banner.
They could do another price cut, if they're willing to lose money on each system sold, but that won't do much seeing as how throughout the year up to October, the Xbox One was $50 cheaper than the PS4, and the PS4 still outsold it, very comfortably might I add.
Really, Sony has had this generation on lock down since E3 2013. There isn't anything Microsoft can do to have the Xbox One catch up with the PlayStation 4.

What they CAN do however is build up the 1st party lineup, catalog, and development so that Microsoft's 1st party output not only eclipses Sony's but can even rival Nintendo's.
Because, all of the things I mentioned earlier about what Nintendo needs to do to get back in the game. Microsoft has already done it, (except the much rumored "Fusion" concept since Microsoft doesn't have handheld.) The only thing they are lacking is the very strong library of 1st party Intellectual Properties. And I gotta give credit to Phil Spencer and the amazing job he's been doing. That's what they appear to be focusing on. They already have Halo and Forza, Gears of War is coming soon, ReCore is new IP that looks great, Fable is another great one. But they need more. They need to keep building it up. How about a 1st party platformer? A 1st party fighting series?
Since both the PS4 and Xbox One share a lot of the same 3rd party games, if not all of them. It will ultimately come down to exclusives -not Timed Exclusives like with Rise of the Tomb Raider. Actual, real, legitimate, 1st party exclusives.
And while it won't do much to help the Xbox One's fight with the PlayStation 4.
What it WILL do, is build up Microsoft's reputation as a great 1st party developer. Which will greatly help the Xbox division in the long run.
Think of it like this: Whenever the PlayStation 5 and Xbox....4...whatever they call it, are about to be released. They all share similar specs, hardware, and architecture, and they have the same library of 3rd party games. The same price tags as well. So what's the next BIG thing that the gamer and customer will look at? Exclusives. They look at Sony's exclusive lineup and see how it stacks with Microsoft's, and they see how much bigger and better Microsoft's is, assuming they go that direction. That will be the clincher, right there. And all those sales that Microsoft lost the PlayStation 4 the prior generation, they will have gained them back.
Just like Sony gained them back with PS4, after they lost them to the Xbox 360. And how did they do it? Exclusives, exclusives, exclusives. Uncharted 1,2, and 3, the Infamous games, Gran Turismo, God of War, Sly Cooper, LitteBigPlanet, MLB The Show series, the Last of Us, the list goes on.
Games still sell hardware. And when the 3rd party games are on all systems. Then it's the 1st party games that will push on ahead of the other. And THAT'S what Microsoft needs to do. Build a strong, diverse, great library of 1st party titles.