Well, I also think this is a VERY important period for the Xbox360

I also believe the Xboat will soon sink during this period : software sales will remain high but hardware sales will collapse.

It is just too late to move their body ...

I think that in the event of dire (and I mean DIRE) console sales numbers, Microsoft needs to be prepared for another small cut in November (in addition to the July one coming up).

I don't believe that will be necessary however, if they have properly planned out software for this holiday. Their current line-up easily matches and exceeds the PS3's current line-up for this year. As long as all those titles hit this year and they at least match Sony's announcements at E3, Microsoft will be fine.

 Well ya! The fact that theres a huge number of high quality RPG exlusives coming out this year is no accident! It was all planned, now we get to see if their planning with provide fruitful results.

I hope microsoft locked up a few more exclusives before EA bought out bioware. Obsidian is another company to think about.

A Blu-Ray 360 would be very unwise. Adding blue laser failures to the already challenging harware situation is unnecessary in my opinion. However, a 3rd-party manufacturer could make and service a blu-ray add-on.

1. A Blu-Ray 360 is not needed and I believe that would be a bad move. $600 Blu-Ray 360 SKU model- people? Would be an epic fail. Blu-Ray drive implement into next XBox in a few years time when it launches.
2. Introduce a new controller that incorporates tilt/motion control similar to PS3 Six axis. 360 Six- Axis would be a good idea.

Technically that's not fixed, you just made it more broken...

Step 2:

Considering that most of these games came from series that were previously on a sony platform and NOT titles labelled "PS3 exclusives" and then shifted to 360, they weren't sony's to begin with as sony didn't have ownership of those titles. You may as well have said Sony's plan was to steal Nintendo marketshare and exclusives (Metal Gear, Final Fantasy... you get the idea).

Step 3:

They were making a profit before the emergence of the X-mote, so as a step 5 maybe, but a step 3? hardly.

@Squill:

Blu-ray 360 won't happen. Maybe the next gen xbox will have it (most likely), but they won't release a blu-ray 360. 1) they wouldn't be able to make games for it and 2) after the roaring success of their HD-DVD add-on, I doubt they would want to dip their toes into another attachable player or built-in one.

Also, I don't think MS is panicking or worried right now, they done what they set out to do, expand their place in the market and crack japan (successful relative to the original xbox anyway), heck, they even made a little money off of this venture, so I would say they are sitting quite happily right now.

@Sc94597:

Sony and guitar hero tend to disagree with your assessment, 100% attach rate is far from necessary (Guitar Hero, Singstar, DDR, Eyetoy etc) and most 3rd party projects can be ported to 360 (with good reason, with the higher software sales and all). So if this X-mote does come out, I would not immediately call it a fail.

E3 will reveal all what 360 and PS3 have to offer to the world. Nintendo just have to show up at E3 to win.

I've always wondered what additional hardware would be required for a 360 to run a Blu-ray movie beyond the actual drive?

I read quotes from MS exec's in the past (while touting HD-DVD) that the HD-DVD was using the 360 100%.  Well, the bit rate from a Blu-ray is higher (due to larger storage space), but how would a stock 360 running at 100% for a lower bitrate HD-DVD handle a higher bitrate Blu-ray?  Was there additional processing circuits in the HD-DVD drive also that was well matched with the HD-DVD's spec's?

Microsoft is doing fine as I see it; the console is doing much better than its predecessor hardware-wise and is the software king. What's to worry about?