Seihyouken said:
Despite all the doom and gloom the PS3 is currently getting, Microsoft are the ones potentially in a really tight spot right now. Now that the Christmas bargain rush is over, 360 and PS3 sales will fall back to being within 50,000 every week. At that point it doesn't come down so much to which console is cheaper, but more so which console has the latest and greatest releases. (See Jan-Sept 2007 & 2008 for reference)

Thats a big statement to make when you don't even know where the sales will bottom out to. Furthermore the only games which sell systems are a select few highly significant games. Your average list of Sony system sellers on vgchartz? Complete bull!

In that aspect, Microsoft is fighting a lost battle. The 360 doesn't have a single upcoming exclusive this year that is sure to sell a significant amount of systems. Ninety-Nine Nights, Dance Dance Revolution Universe, Blue Dragon, Mass Effect, Lips, Scene It?, Splinter Cell, and espeically Forza Motorsport and Halo have already saturated the 360's market. They'll all sell huge amounts of software for sure, but the effects of their releases on weekly hardware sales will be negligible at best. Alan Wake and Ninja Blade, as new IPs, could both potentially have a sizable impact, but only if they're extremely well-recieved by critics and heavily marketed.

Doesn't have a single upcoming release huh? Wow, lets um not repeat the mistake of 2008 shall we?

PS3 on the otherhand has a ton of significant next-generation premiers coming in 2009 such as Final Fantasy XIII, Gran Turismo 5, God of War III and Killzone 2 all of which should combine to move millions of consoles for Sony. PS3 also has quite a few promising new IPs such as M.A.G, Quantum Theory, White Knight Chronicles, Heavy Rain, EyePet, and Demon's Souls, which all have the same potential to be runaway hits as Alan Wake or Ninja Blade. Furthermore, now that the PS3 with the upcoming 45nm Cell revision coming around March, the PS3 will be profitible and be able to ride profits all the way into Q4 when the PS3 will cost about $325 to manufacture. At that point, Sony will issue a $100 price drop in every region combined witht the scheduled releases of Final Fantasy XIII in Japan, Gran Turismo 5 in Europe, and God of War III in America. Needless to say, Sony stands to handily win 2009 all together due simply to Q4, the same way Microsoft did in 08, if Microsoft can't come up with something to drastically spur 360 sales.

FFXIII (On 360), God of War III - is a system seller when LBP etc were not... Wow, Killzone 2 won't sell systems there have been 4 significant shooter releases this generation and 3 have been exclusive on the Xbox 360, that market is spent! Noone cares about mag now that theres a subscription fee, White knights main effects are Japan 2008, Heavy rain is niche (still good), Eyepet has that big thing called a Wii to rape its potential and Demon Soul? Hahahahaha. All have the potential to be runaway hits? LOL. Lastly who's ass did you pull out the speculation on how much the PS3 will cost?

That being said, there's really not much more Microsoft can do. They almost definitely can't afford to drop the 360's price by $100 because they'd be breaking the base manufacturing cost for the system and could likely end up selling the system at a permenant loss. On the otherside, a $50 price-drop would look weak and likely wouldn't be enough in comparisons with a $100 price drop from Sony, especially with all the blockbuster hits Sony has for Q4 in every region.

A SCEE executive confirmed that Gran Turismo 5 is on schedule to arrive in Europe during "Christmas 2009." That's not to say it can't get delayed, but that's an unforseeable circumstance and can be said about almost any game. Since Gran Turismo games always hit Japan first, that also pretty much confirms a Japanese release this year.

I don't see what your point against FFXIII is. It will only release in Japan this year, but Final Fantasy is practically a religion there and their games almost always make most of their sales in Japan anyway. When it's released there it will sell hundreds of thousands of PS3s.

If Microsoft doesn't drop the price of the 360 in Q4 2009 to match a PS3 price-cut of $100, I can assure you that PS3 will sell infinitely more, even if the 360 is still $100 cheaper. The reason for this is because the PS3 will open itself up to a vastly larger market, while 360 will remain with the same one that it has already been selling to for over a year. This is the exact reason why PS3 did so poorly in comparison to the 360 this last Christmas.

Superior is absurd.  But, outside of online play, why would PSN be better than Sliver?  Home?  Home is nowhere near all that yet.

(although I am not familiar with the extents of what a silver account includes,  I have always had a gold account)