I kind of agree with what you said(sorry no burn from me lol). Its really good to see a three way split in the gaming market. Comp between the companys gives us gamers better choices.

Definitely. MS's goal was to disrupt Sony's near-monopoly on the bleeding-edge home console market, and they succeeded wonderfully in that regard. The 360 is in many ways a better media center than the PS3, excepting Blu-Ray, and it's just as graphically capable.

i feel the only people to have been "hurt" by this gen was Sony, but then again you cant be on top all the time

The being aided by the Wii is so true. That was actually my prediction when chatting with my cousin before the Wii and PS3 came out. My thinking was the Wii might seem cheap but with all the accesories you may need to buy along with games it can get up there in overral price which will slow down not just 360 sales but PS3. Basically besides games the 1-2 punch on the PS3 was the Wii and the 360 being out ahead of time. Yes the PS3 may be catching up to the 360 but many believed it would have long passed it by now. This is why there where so many jokes for so long about when SONY Domination will start. With good games coming out and cheaper price it should do very well but the same thing can be said of the 360.

I 100% agree with the brand loyalty statement. It appears that a very small % of those 120m PS2 owner MUST have the PS3.

MS improved in NA
MS improved in Japan
MS Failed in Europe

Xbox vs 360 Europe Only, Launches Aligned (sorry can't upload picture for some reason)
http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=XB&reg1=Europe&cons2=X360&reg2=Europe&cons3=X360&reg3=Europe&weeks=156

Without UK, the 360 would of been a disaster in Europe

To lose to PS3 for the last 17 weeks in a row and counting you have to be joking.

I don´t 100% agree with the brand loyalty statment, everything else is ok in my book but brand loyalty does exist... but almost only for Nintendo... why ??? Because the Nintendo experiance is not the console, its the games... thats why Nintendo could turn a profit even with the GC beeing last. The Playstation brand and the XBox brand are much more dependant on 3rd parties... which is why the 360 is doing relatively good and the PS3 is doing relatively bad... most of the big 3rd parties Sony had in the PS2 age are now multiplat, Nintendo doesn´t need them to have a stron lineup... so if you have strong 1st and 2nd party games then yes you can count on some brand loyalty...

 Winning a battle is not the same as winning a war, the PS3s success will always be mesured by the success of the PS2 and it will never reach that standard... same goes for the N64 and the Gamecube...which is why the Wii is seen as such a big success... the 360 successfully disrupted the PS3, not without help from the Wii but the fact that most HD games from 3rd paries are multiplat is a great success for Microsoft... there is just no way around those facts.

I'd say no overall. Why? Because while they certainly hurt Sony (in US and to a lesser extend Europe) all they really did was make it easier for Nintendo to zoom back into first place, and in the process consign themselves to a losing position also (no way is 360 going to be lead console this generation).

Also, I think MS has painted itself into a corner with 360 (although that might be intentional depending upon what their true goals are). Why? They have simply consolidated what they started (far more imperfectly) with the Xbox, which is to be the console of choice for US gamers (and to a lesser extent UK and other English speaking nations) in preference to PC gaming for FPS/online MP gaming.

Now this is a very lucrative market (that demographic will probably spend more on games / other stuff than any other gaming demographic) - but in satisfying it they are denying themselves any chance I think of being seen as the choice PS2 and Wii offered.

Unless MS changes tack and comes out with a lower cost console next gen (comparitive in jump in spec from Xbox to 360) and turns away from offering high end graphics and online MP as its core competancy I doubt that next gen MS will have any more chance of getting near PS2 numbers (and whatever Wii finally ends up with) than they had this gen.

They are making some profit, they are in a good position in US for next gen for hardcore demographic for shooters and will outperform what they achieved with Xbox - so I'm not saying total failure by any means. In fact going forward I could see MS deciding to settle for that market worldwide - balance power with price and strong shooters / online and dominate that market. This would mean however that the far larger more casual console market would always be up for grabs by either Sony or Nintendo and out of their reach.

So did they achieve what I think were their overall goals? No. Have they given themselves a change to be number 1 next gen? No, not unless they steal ideas from Nintendo and Nintendo fail to deliver next gen - but I doubt that's going to happen.

Have they found a strong market they could exploit? Yes. Are they profitable? Yes.

My view anyway. Oh, and I bet Sony are rueing letting MS drag them into an effective arms race leaving the door wide open for Nintendo - although the combined profits from gaming and BR may soften the blow, and I guess they did want to use PS3 to Trojan horse so MS can't take all the blame!