Anyone that seriously thinks Microsoft entering the console business wasnt good for the quality and quantity of games and the cost of these games that we are playing now is an idiot.

And an even more overpriced ps3 with even less games on it.

C'mon reasonable you cannot be serious.

Any reasonable person knows competition is good.

amen to that

The Wii might have not existed. GC would have done better and Nintendo might have not taken the route that they did. The PS3 probably wouldn't have been released till mid 07, with a hugely superior software lineup than it actually did. Nintendo would probably have a cheaper console than the PS3 though, maybe 400 the most. And I think HW sales wise ps3 and the nintendo console would be close with nintendo having the edge in price, until sony cuts price, and lets not forget all the games that were on the 360 that would probably just go the the ps3 if the box wasn't around.

I know right?  Competition has been historically proven to only hurt free markets!  Honestly, I would have prefered Sony had never entered the market.  The 64 deserved those sales much more than the PS1 did.

 QFT

So here we are with MS. Let's say MS never made the 360 and quit after the first Xbox. Let's take a look at what Ninty and Sony would probably be at. NOTE: This is all speculation.

Ninty: Most likely still owning the console war moreso on price point. Though Ninty could probably increase their price to 300 and they would still sell madly. Also a small chance Ninty would have been willing to go online a bit more since there would be no XBL behemoth so online gaming would be newer and then less competetion. A very very longshot but who knows.

Sony: The biggest changes would be the price point. With only one HD console up for grabs what would stop ppl from buying the original 600$ priced console. No doubt they would still have to drop the price but it would be less of a drop less often. (The Ps3 has only had one drop atm but obviously it was huge. They could prolly drop it increments of 50$ maybe 100 at the max over longer periods) PSN would suck. And believe me I would be disappointed with it. It is ironic that someone actually copied MS. (and yes MS copied its online features from PC) Hell even World of Warcraft will now have Achievements in Wrath of the Lich King.

Consumers: We the consumers would have very little choice in what we have to play (compared to now) and it would most likely be much more expensive to be a gamer. Value simply wouldn't be there. The loss of franchises and a great online service would only short consumers. Thats not to say Gears or others IPs wouldn't be made on other platforms.

All in all having MS in this race has made all 3 companies create even better products and have made this gen a great time to be a gamer. The narrow-mined ppl who wish for MS or other companies to leave the console business need to check their insecurity at the door and realize what business is all about. Competetion creates better products and better value.

he didn't say there would be no competition. He just said the internet would be a nicer place and most FPS games would be on PC. I don't know about the second part, but the first part is defintely true

I think it would have saved Sony a lot of negative US media press coverage and internet fanboy trolling.

On the other hand, IMO the 360 does somewhat serve a technical stepping stone from PC to PS3. The 360 has some crucial technical differences compared to the PS3, making it easier to port PC orientated games to the 360, but most of the PS3 development requirements also benefit 360 game engine design, having high end gaming development focus shift from PC gaming to consoles is IMO a long term benefit for the PS3.

In the end I think the existence of the 360 won't have too much of a negative impact on the PS3. I do think RRoD, disc scratching issues and such are bad news for unaware non-hardcore consumers who may have bought a 360 in all the confusion. I also think with regard to some aspects the PS3 got rushed in certain ways (like firmware updates) because of the 360's head start (and HD DVD) on the market. IMO a more polished early experience regarding both the 360 (hardware) and PS3 (software) would have been beneficial to game console reputation in general. I would have preferred if the 360 would have been released a year later and the PS3 worldwide a half year later as well, taking care of such early issues.

America wouldn't have invaded Iraq.

Angels would still sing.
AIDS would be cured.
Jesus would have had second coming.

That might be right.