I cannot see how an extra 40gb storage space would help the mainstream take to the 360 but price wise the 360 has been the same price as the Wii for a long time now. For me they need to push the new avatars and dashboard out around october time and have shows set up in major stores touting it's new user friendliness and demo'ing games like Lips, Viva Piniata, Banjo Kazooey leading up to xmas.

This is the only way more parents will purchase a 360 this xmas for me.

New avatars and dashboards? Who gives a shit about that.

MS has pulled all the stops in Europe, but I agree, focusing on their casual games is the best way to go.

parents looking to buy a new console for a xmas present to replace little timmy's ps2 who isn't really into motion controls will give a shit about it rather than hearing well this model upscales to 1080p, has full blue tooth connectivity and the hours of fun little timmy will have streaming movies to his psp from ps3 when using it as a media centre hub.

They'll give a shit about it if shown along with a few fun games for all ages.

Wii has avatars. Wii has a dashboard (so to speak). That won't have any impact on people making decisions. How can you show off a dashboard anyway? And the avatars are a bland waste of marketing space.

That's a great fantasy world, but most parents don't think that way. Most probably wouldn't even know or care about avatars, bluetooth, 1080p or streaming video. They will look to see what the other parents are buying, the DS and Wii for the most part at least in the UK.

The 360 doesn't have any brand appeal throughout casuals.