Are you waiting for some referee to blow the whistle?  ask sadam who won.

I don't know how you made Microsoft sound like an underdog on the OP, if anyone was the underdog it was Nintendo- just another huge corporation entering the video game business.

Microsoft wasn't scared of Sony, what was Sony trying to take away from MS? Their Vaio computers is just some brand name, they don't do OS software, MS doesn't do TVs or Media Players. MS just wanted more money and went into the game business and just needed to keep spending money to beat out PS3- Sony can't keep on spending money unlike MS.

I do think this was Mission Accomplished for Microsoft, they didn't lose anything and gained still- still 2nd in console wars, Sony is going down the toilet it seems, massive third party support, stripping PS3 exclusives, the only problem that no one predicted was the Wii but that is easy to attack also. Just throw more money for "casual stuff", avatars were made so quickly, and those games will be pouring in.

When you hear stories like Wal-Mart or Microsoft destroying competition with aggressive pricing, etc., we are witnessing it here as well.

LOL last gen MS was number 2 and now they will be number 2, GO MS, nothing like reaching new goals. ;P

I thought it was because Microsoft was seeing their PC franchises selling less and getting pirated more? I think they just wanted a bigger piece of the gaming pie.

Yeah you can't really give them credit for doing it though. Theres some great games like Halo and Gears, but when it comes down to it Sony killed themselves. Not Microsoft beat Sony.

A good priced PS3 (w/o blu ray) would have beat not only the 360 but also the wii.

All of this is BS.
What's the purpose? Preemptive damage control? I don't understand.
The Xbox brand is failing on nearly all its goals.

MS wa HEAVILY invested in HD-DVD, because it was the sole HD media format using primarily their video codec. Yes, Apple was the first on video on computer, and they still are. Back in the days (1991), when I was using internet and the web started, all you could see was Apple Quicktime and their super efficient codecs. MS wanted that from this day. But they are so bad (contrary to popular belief) that they never topped Apple's format. They nearly succeeded in killing Apple's main market which is audio/video codec (most people believe Apple are mainly a computer company, but computer is just a mean for an end). Mac always were mostly showcases for Apple audio/video codecs. Now, with iPod, Apple successfully introduced Quicktime and all their other technologies up to the Windows PC, and their format is also used in Blu-Ray. AAC is on the way to become the defacto standard for music (MP3 being only a legacy), and H.264 will be the standard for video. I'm not even sure MS format is still part of the accepted codecs for BluRay, but what is sure, is that it's on its way out, as H.264 will soon be used 100% of the time on Blu-Ray. ONLY MS supported Toshiba for HD-DVD, HD-DVD would have been dead since a long time if MS didn't desperately tried to make it afloat. Like with the Apple of 1991, MS never succeeded in providing video features on par with what was on Blu-Ray. Also, Blu-Ray use Java derivative (SUN controlled language), another blow to MS. MS lost every hope with losing HD-DVD.
Now they're doing a desperate move with downloading movies. But Nintendo is already on track to providing streaming. So if the argument of better quality meaning nothing is true, Nintendo will destroy MS hopes with their straming if it ever goes outside Japan. Keep in mind Nintendo offers "exclusive" content on their streaming. MS' only relief is that Nintendo don't want to kill other means of content distribution, but just that they all go through their console, so that they can then direct people to their games. But this is precisely what MS wanted to prevent Sony to do. So now MS needs to go after Nintendo (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article5429973.ece). But Nintendo is a very different company compared to Sony.
Mission clearly failed on this by MS.

With "establishing" their console, MS just showed that you need to reach what, $7.5 B in the hole before you have any chance at competing. Besides, MS is a good way to scare away any direct competitor, one that relies on graphics and power. Now, MS is back only $7 B lost. They better go on making a profit so they can at least get back the $2 B they lost with the XB360. By any means, this is not a success at all, this is pretty much a mission failed.

Playstation also still means sth. It won't mean anything when Sony closes the division and don't make them anymore. It's not reached that yet. The astroturfing was very strong against both Sony and Nintendo since their launched their console. MS capitalised a lot on them being launched 1 year earlier. Heck, they could, as long as they are ahead and still on the ascending part of the bell curve of sales. But as soon as they passed their peak, it will be a completely different situation. The question is: have they reached their peak yet?
People say this generation will be long, and mix that with the meaning that the peak will appear later. But they are not correlated at all. MS better hope their traditional console doesn't have the traditional peak at their 3rd year on the market like most loser consoles get usually.