I'm going to wait until next week to start predicting anything. If the 360 beats last years sales, beats the PS3 in sales and the PS3 does not beat its last years sales then I think we will really see momentum really built up for the 360 like we saw it for the PS3 late last year early this year.

The 360 needs a slim though. i know Jaspers have been spotted in the wild but the 360 needs to do the following:

-Get rid of the disc tray, it looks tacky
-built in Wi-Fi
-Make LIVE free
-Include a hard drive with the Arcade, but keep it the same price

All this + a mass market price + a good game line up = sure success IMO.

I would say slim the console down, but then I was thinking the hard drives might not fit, and that would cause a big problem. I'm sure they have something planned though.

 LIVE wont be free. As long as they pump out the good games, ppl will pay for live, liking it or not.

Built in wifi only adds to the cost, a big no-no for MS. Same with the hard drive for Arcade. the embedded 256 flash memory is suficient.

With the Valhalla chip slated for 09 holiday (one chip for GPU and CPU, instead of 2), that could very well mean a price cut or a slim 360. thats the time if there is one planned.

I'm not saying that it is going happen, I'm just saying all that would help, marketshare wise. With the built in Wi-Fi if they use the Valhalla chip they could spend some extra money working on putting Wi-Fi in and keeping the console at the same price.

I think it will be more than 7 millions. 7.5-8 seems possible. Hmm .. but if that happens then .. 10 millions gap by the end of the FY? Ouch.

Most likely.

 theyll use the extra money for a future price cut, just in case a PS3 price cut puts MS in a bad position.

I agree but the question is, does it make economic sense to MS? They have already paid millions for exclusives. They have already been selling it at a loss. Losing multiple revenue streams that offset the cose would not be a good idea. Also, no one will agree to increasing costs right now.

I think the gap will grow..if PS3 sees a price drop in March next year, and only if it's a significant price drop (IE: $75-100), they still have a chance. But right now, the leads going to grow for the 360. And even then, the PS3 will only have a CHANCE, it's hard to come back when your competitors sell 2x and 3x, respectively, of how much you sell. Yes, I know it's the holiday season.

I honestly see the economy turning around soon. People say it's going to be a long time - I see it like this. The economy, at least here in NA, was fine until gas prices started going up. Gas prices got to over $4 per gallon in some areas, and suddenly our economy began to fail..we began to get 'stimulus' checks, gov. started 'bailing' companies out, etc. Now, gas prices are down to..what? $1.64? An amazing turnaround in an amazingly small amount of time. While I honestly feel like this is the answer, I think that some time will pass before we begin to see things turn around..but now that the prices are down, people will have a lot more money. Consider I have a 2008 Toyota Tundra that used to cost me $80 to fill up and now it costs me about $35. And I have to fill up twice a week. You could say I'm saving a little. I just hope it doesn't take too long for the economy to turn around..it may still take a year or so, but not 10 years or whatever like people are saying. Mark me words!

360 will widen the gap to at least start of 2008 levels by the end of this year.

Going into next year, it is quite likely that this will continue until Sony finds a way to do a price cut. Killzone 2 will have some effect, but I don't think it can single handedly change the current trend, especially if during the gaming show in January 360 looks competitive in content with PS3.

I think 7.5- 8 million. But that is easy to say now, I mean, people would laugh at you if you said that in july.