They've actually played it very poorly. The sales of the 360 aren't anything great outside of the holiday season, it's just the PS3's sales have at times been worse(especially during 2007), which is due to Sony's own mishaps and not anything that MS did.

Take 2007 for example, if the PS3 weren't around with its abysmal sales for comparison, then the 360 would have caught hell for the way it was selling, especially in Europe.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. MS is pretty much in the same situation that they were in last gen, which is a distant, unprofitable second. The real beneficiary of Sony's mistakes this generation is Nintendo as the amount of marketshare gained by the latter is almost exactly the amount lost by the former. It really doesn't matter who ends up in 2nd or 3rd place because the PS3 and 360 will most likely finish within 5 million units of each other and still way behind the Wii, so neither one will be able to claim any kind of decisive victory. If you went back and added 5 million units onto the total of the N64 or Xbox, it wouldn't change anything.

Actually i don't know hmv :P no, it's a Fona. (Fona 2000 actually which is the big ass fona) Probably a danish only chain :p

@Lord N

That was the point i was trying to make exacly :p