Against the PS3 it doesn't even really matter anymore. The 360 has won, but Wii is the winner.

The Wii won, but it won it's own market. The Wii does not cover all the bases so there is plenty of room for HD consoles to be successful. Nintendo fanboys keep wanting to dance around in front of everyone else in their Mario Underoos yelling "We won, We won", but while the Wii is an undisputed success, it didn't cause the sales of everything else in the world to slump like the PS2 did.

As for the $50 360 drop and the North American market, I think Microsoft will be happy if they keep growing their market here. The NA market is a powerful market to have a firm foothold in. The price drop will keep their sales steady. $300 is a good price point to be at. While $200 is the golden price, $300 is at least what many people expect to pay for a video game system. $350 and $400 are above what many expect and are willing to pay.

I give this thread a 9.3.

Win what? A discount certificate at the Ramada Inn?

Who cares, Microsoft has already solidified the xbox brand name. Like Dirty P said they've gained enough market share to keep movin on up from here on out. Face it folk Microsoft is here to stay, especially if they keep coming out with bomb ass games.

MS has a hard cap on Xboxs they can sell, they just are headed to that cap more quickly since they already had the last generation to attract the certain demographic. They will sell to the 18-30 year olds who are too poor for a decent computer, as they did last gen. This is about a 25-30 million strong demo and as such its quite likely that, just like the xbox the 360 will hit 25-30 million before the end. Its going out of that demo that is the problem, there is just no reason for anyone else to buy a 360.

If you have a decent PC all the good 360 games will hit PC in better form (gears of war, mass effect, bioshock, ect ect ect.) If you are not 18-30 and don't love FPS type games there's really no reason to get a 360 (there are games like singstar, eye toy stuff and all that on the PS systems, obviously a lot of fluff on the Wii but on the 360....?). Basically everyone who wants to play games like Halo 3 and Gears of War will get a 360 just like most of them got an Xbox. That will let MS sell about 30 million total. This limit is shown in how the system never gains momentum. Its kind of been a slow burn since the start while the PS3 has gained large amounts of sales with every price drop. There are many reasons to want a PS3 even if you don't like hardcore FPS games, but very few reasons to want a 360 unless you're in the demo.

Too poor for a decent computer, Huh!! I have 3 decent computer's 1 for the wife , 1 for my job, 1 for multimedia. You couldn't be more wrong in this stereotype. I'm sorry man but the xbox brand is here to stay.

As many have said, there are a number of ways to interpret a win for the 360. It won't win as in be the best selling console, that's for sure. It will win a few weeks in the HD console battle over the PS3, but that'll be contained to NA and they will be hard pressed to get more than one week in WW sales over Sony. But, it will help them stay on track for continued growth over last year. I'd call that a win, especially since they are still the newcomer of the bunch and have a lot to prove.

All told, I think in terms of where I'd want to be if I were in charge of the 360 I'd say I was already winning. The PS3 isn't going to dominate livingrooms anytime soon, so the battle for the all-in-one set-top-box is on hold; the product is gaining popularity in the face of a devestating hardware fiasco; the business is profitable, instead of a $1 billion a year loser; and the biggest market in the world has accepted the brandname as a legitimate competitor, ensuring future console generations will see some success. Yeah, sounds like a win compared to this time last year or the year before that.

Well, they solidified that they make lousy hardware.  The quality issues are going to follow the xbox brand into the next generation.

Well said sir.  I own a desktop and a laptop and still do most of my gaming on the 360.  I spend 8 hours a day pounding out code, so I really do not feel like spending even more time looking at a computer monitor when I get home.  I feel like getting in front of my 42' lcd and cranking up the 360 and playing some games.  I will be playing the hell out of Spore and Diablo 3 when they come out though.  Other than that, I will stick to consoles.

LOL w/ Slimeattack