We know people thought Nintendo = videogames during the NES/SNES era, and now with the Wii, they may be achieving that again...Sony replaced the 'Nintendo = videogames' for a lot of people with the PS1 and PS2, a testament to their success....now, do you think MS, with a lot of perseverance and $$$ to throw around, will ever achieve similar success  the way Nintendo and Sony have experienced?....I´m not talking about the 360 here, but what would you say are the chances of a future Xbox system finally experiencing NES/SNES/PS1/PS2/Wii level of success?

Hrm... no.

Probably not, but we´re talking about the future. So, who knows?

what's a better word for NEVER.

Its possible, but I think it is unlikely ...

In my opinion neither Sony or Microsoft are particularly imaginative companies, and they tend to be able to produce evolutionary products rather than revolutionary products. Sony was able to "come to power" in the 90s because Sega went out of their way to alienate their customers while Nintendo decided to offend third party publishers; in other words they were in the right place at the right time.

When you're dealing with products that are developing in an evolutionary way Sony or Microsoft are highly capable of maintaining or expanding their marketshare, but when these products are developing in a revolutionary way they tend to get decimated; Look at how Sony and Microsoft dealt with the iPod, Nintendo DS, or Wii to see what I mean.

If Sony and Nintendo screw up Microsoft would be able to gain rapid dominance, or if the market develops in an evolutionary patter for a long time they could slowly grow their support; but I think it is unlikely that both Sony and Nintendo would screw up at the same time, and this industry tends to have periods of evolutionary and revolutionary growth.

Sony and Nintendo played on fair grounds and innovated. They both are legendary among many people.


Microsoft is only innovative when it comes to computer software. In the console business, they like to create something that someone else has already invented and innovated. (e.g.- The Wiimote and now the Newton or whatever that crap thing is.) The Wii mote is already legendary and innovative and can be used in games well. Same applies to the legendary Dualshocks. Microsoft just takes it and puts the "x" logo on it. And it's wrong.

Probably never.

Microsoft would need to start being proactive, rather than just reactive (nice use of buzzwords, eh?) for them to really advance. I've always got the impression that their heart really isn't in it, probably because they're only in the market to fight a proxy war. I'm not even completely sure they'll still be in the console business at the end of the next decade. But like marciosmg said, it's the future, so who knows?

Probably not. MS has made it's living over the years, from copying other companies.

And I mean everything. Here are some of there latest ideas.

Zune (ipod)
Silverlight (Flash)
Vista (OSX)
Microsoft Spaces (.Mac)

All the way back to the start, anything MS did, you could point to some established market it was trying to overtake. Gaming is no different to them.

The problem, is gaming is different. MS it trying to tackle the hardware, and success is in the software. (odd that a software company doesn't get that).

They have, can, and will be successful in the gaming industry, but Nintendo has the advantage, that all there top games are owned by Nintendo. It will be very hard to overcome that in the next 20-30 years.

Edit: To be more clear, MS is buyng exclusive, and not makeing them. Games like Gears will never be locked up forever my MS. It's only temporary. Halo is theres, but that's about it.

Nah. Nintendo's first console dominated. Sony's first console dominated. Microsoft's first console......not so much.

Microsoft will succeed, but they'll never be number one.