Of course they could have... it's not like the whole company is in financial dire straits or anything like that.

As long as Sony lives on so will their Playstation Consoles. If anything puts an end to that it will be all around losses for Sony and the collapse of the corporation. MS has very little to do with that.

Using MS's logic that most of a consoles sales come when its under $200 they are going to come in third. Of course that is only using their logic not mine. I think they have second place in the bag but if the gap is under 10 million lead over PS3 its not really a huge victory.

u guys can pretend all you want, but we all know the PS brand has hit an all time low......

Nintendo helped by taking away the casual buyers, and MS helped by taking away most of the hardcore base.

Nintendo and MS dont know it, but they were unlikely allies in the fall of Playstation.

MS should thank "The Depression" we've fallen in. Reeves said himself. MS was being beaten all around last year till the price cut in September. The Monster was showing signs of coming out with its ugly head, but wanst out yet. A month later (End of October I think, not sure) The global markets fwll, the moster got out full force and f*ckd the world's economy. Justly when Sony could have tried to pull the price cut thing we all know its necessary to have better sales. IF Sony had cut the price in the hollydays seson the advantage MS sports now could (and problably would, at least I think so) smaller, and this past two months of renewed "Sony's doomed" crap wouldnt be up. Imagine if Sony managed to cut the price $100,00 bucks back this hollyday season..Hey MS would do the same...yeah, and lose even more money than Sony when they're managing to make some (if that). Big If...but thanks to the meltdown, it was either selling lots and put in risk the SCE division, or protect it, by selling less (withou loosing lots of money at each console sold, wich in itself is weird...) Lets see if they can manage to cut the price in the beggining of its new fiscal years as the rumors are declaring.

I do agree Sony was stupid and arrogant, not noticing the lenghts MS would go to mantain the advantage it got by being a year old in the lead, paying for exclusives and taking exclusives of it, but now its too late anyway, at least for that, and its own studios are showing great games to hold off the blatant fanboyism (not really, but its keeping them at bay...somewhat...).

In this business its ok to buy games, IPs and such, all/everything have its price, but you end up paying in the end...examples...getting out early for MS meant RRoD and the new E74 (?) defects, the poor games at lauching (wich arent that much of a problem, in its beggining) and so on.

The only one that didnt f**** up was Nintendo...if you dont consider the core Nintendo gamers/fans who IMO got sha**** by the main point of the Wii being the casuals. They're welcome and all, but...well...the lack of games (either because of third parties putting their eggs on X360/PS3 basket  in the beggining, or because its not that necessary to work  hard when you sell  millions of units every month because is cheap and, accordingly to many (which Iam not one of them), fun (well, enjoy it).

So, Sony is not out of the battle, its working hard to get up and in better shape in this global economic meltdown (and it means its better for US, gamers, competition is always good). MS is paying their way, trying to keep Sony as far behing as they can, and Nintendo is sitting at the top, swiming in money, caring for no one (IMO).

 Considering sony brand power in Japan and especially europe in the past two generations, the fact that the 360 is still ahead now is an amazing victory.

Besides, the 360 officially increased its marketshare over last gen............its now successful no matter what palce it comes in now.

whats with the "Playstation is having their last year, they are doomed! " threads. if im not mistaken , last gen microsoft was second and nintendo was last. why didnt anyone say "Nintendo is doomed!" are you guys serious?
Playstation is staying , whether they're last place or first place it wont stop them from releasing games.

why didnt you guys say anything about Xbox is doomed when obviously last gen was the worst for them?

By this logic Ninty defeated Sony after a 10 year losing streak not M$. Sony is still winning in Japan and only 2m behing the 360 in EU despite behing a whole year behind. MS fans seem to be lowering the classification of what constitutes as "defeating Sony" every month.

 This has to be one of the worst arguments for why microsoft is beating sony that I have ever seen.  I think the only reason that microsoft is ahead, besides the fact that their game lineup is american centered, is xbox live.  Their online functionality is years ahead of sony.  When you can have integrated xbox live features in every game, you have done something right.  Also, the fact that it takes like 5 seconds to update your system versus the hour it takes to update on the ps3 also helps me enjoy my 360 better.  But the update thing is just something you learn from owning both and that is probably why most ps360 owners play mostly on their 360's. 

Microsoft didn't defeat Sony, Sony defeated themselves.

And just in case anyone doesn't believe me: The PS3 disappointment timeline. They really did take everything great they did the previous two generations and then threw up all over it.