Australia obviously needs a price cut, a major one so consumers see value in the product.

As for Smarthouse, I don't really trust anything David Richards writes. He was wrong about several claims he's made in the past about Microsoft and he had a habit of writing stories based on passing comments from people that may or may not be true.  Check out the Vista controversy at his Wikipedia page for an example.

 It is hard to get specific hardware/software sales and attach rate information in Australia.  Certainly the gamecube's presense diminished quickly.  That said, there are STILL stores selling second hand games for it and there always has been.  Nintendo's position at the time was a little different though:

-Small games-focused company, influence in recession.

-Little third party support

-Determined to profit

Microsoft's position is different because of this:

-Huge company with a retailer relationship beyond games (looking at you Windows).

-Substantial third-party support

-Determined to profit LONG-TERM, meaning they will say/do what they have to to keep retailers supporting their system.

I'm currently doing a case study on Microsoft's monopolistic leverage practises at University, so I kinda know what I'm talking about

Also, I researched the Gamecube and Xbox for my "measures of success" thread.  Two thirds of the gamecube's million sellers were Nintendo games, but they had the same number of total million sellers as the Xbox.

Alot of you guys haven't realized something, thats our population, its only around 20 million people, compared to USA's 300 million or something like that.....

yeah we have less people living here then in New York. @ star craft: lol I believe you know what your talken about even if you didnt say you were doing a case study because thoes things about microsoft have become pretty common knowledge ;) but seeing as though you are researching it you might be able to give some insight into this... I don't think the 360 will experience the alienation that the GC did in Australia but do you think MS will settle with their current slip in sales or is the AU market worth fighting for? Do you have any idea where a company such as MS might see Australia on a global market?

A normal gaming company wouldn't see Australia has having much growth potential into the future.  Microsoft however, has a big incentive to be present here.  We currently have very slow download speeds (in general).  We don't have any major film or music download market as a result of this.  Even music piracy is lower here than in the rest of the Western world on average due to our slow broadband.

However, when Microsoft launches it's 360 video market place here, it will become the first major player (with the possible exception of itunes) in the Australian video-on-demand market.  Unlike itunes, the Xbox 360 is tailored to people with fast internet, increasing the possibility that Microsoft has already carved out just the right demographic here in Australia to launch it's service.

In stark contrast to gaming's minimal room to grow in this country, the film and television downloads market is only just starting to open up, and that could be worth billions of dollars to Microsoft over the long term if they can get a large piece of the pie as our broadband network slowly comes up to American/European/Japanese standards. 

@ TheUltimateLife

I would think they are quite similar with a slight lean to American football. There are no rugby players to match the size and speed of American football players.

I doubt that they would actually go as far to drop it, and isn't it the software that they made the actual money off of as oppose to hardware?

Oh, and Australian football (Or "Aussie rules football" as it is refered to) became fairly popular among mid-teens a few years ago in the part of Canada I live in, we even have a league now.

@ starcraft: ahhh so there is still alot of potential for MS to continue in the market where the GC couldnt. So in light of the 360s upcoming posibilities to shine in AU it would be rediculous for retailers to ditch it just because of its loosing market share. Do you know of any sites that cover the AU gaming market better then the little attempt IGN has made?

@outlawauron: How big are American footballers? In Aus they have gotten up to like 145kg but alot range from about 85 to 120 kg

 http://palgn.com.au/

Awesome :)

The AFL are doing a pretty good job spreading the sport around the world - most countries now have some form of AFL league happening.

AFL is easily my favourite sport - with Tennis probably second (in terms of what comprises a riveting, competitive sport). You can get some stinkers of matches - but the good ones are just amazing.

My best ever (live) sporting moment was watching the Sydney v Essendon '96 prelim final, when Plugger kicked the point after the siren to send the Swans to the grand final (somehow, I ended up right behind those goals - and ran onto the field crazy, like everyone else :>).