Once again, just to point this little fact out…this is starting to smell a lot like last year. The 360 is now in a FAR stronger position in 2009, then it was in 2008, and before E3, a lot of people had written off 2008 for the 360…in fact many had the ps3 overtaking the 360 by the end o the year. A LOT turned around at E3, and I believe M$ had made a commitment to annually make E3 its centerpiece. A few years back after the change, E3 looked to be on it’s deathbed, but M$ and a few others injected new life into the conference, and it’s back and vibrant, so M$ looks to key this venue as it’s own to showcase it’s wares. There is A LOT on the table left for us to see for the 360:
- New IP and titles from Rare…possible Killer Instinct game, which would be an absolutely blockbuster announcement.
- Details of ODST, which is due in September and we’ve seen zippo of the game, as compared to Uncharted and GOW, which aren’t due out till next year, and we’ve seen tons of stuff, comparatively. It’s not because M$ doesn’t HAVE the info, it’s just because they are saving it for E3 to make a bigger splash.
- New Lionhead IP is in the works, and this will be announced as well.
- New IP and features for NXE, which we know is on tap as well…1 vs. 100 for example. M$ spent a lot of R&D money here, so we can expect some new features.
- New 3rd party games on tap. Sure, they might be multi-plat for some, but who cares…I want Dragon Age and Lost Planet and Mass Effect…
- New MMO news, which might be interesting news for some, like me.
My point is simply this, M$ looks to be trying to get away from this whole “year of…” bit, since it sets you up for failure. The goal is to deliver in execution, rather than in hope, that way, people aren’t disappointed, when the vaunted title comes and fails to meet expectation…

^I don't remember anything turning around for 360 last year until a juicy price cut real close to the release of the big mammoth called Gears of War 2.

This year:  No mammoth. No price cut. And I'm sure they'll have a strong software lineup (mostly thanks to multiplats) but let's see how that turns out this time without the aforementioned factors and more aggresive competition.

I guess the Wii doesn't count for any years....

heruamon I can only hope you just came from the dentist and the drugs have not worn off yet, keeping you a little loopy. MS had a big announcement in the form of FFXIII going to 360, besides that the conference from them was terrible.

"A few years back after the change, E3 looked to be on it’s deathbed, but M$ and a few others injected new life into the conference."

by "a few others" I can only hope you mean just about every other company in the gaming industry :/

Fable 2 was on display, Gears of War 2 release date was set, Final Fantasy news was dropped as well...NXE was announce...on and on and freaking on, so I'm not sure where you and RPG where, but I certianly remember a different E3 from last year.

Well let's see...there are about 7-8 BIG movers and shakers in the gaming world, and using this article as a reference from last summer:

http://kotaku.com/386713/industry-insiders-discuss-esa-e3s-future

It would seem that many of them decided to take a pass on E3.  Now, it would seem to me that the 3 console makers, Activision-Blizzard, EARTS, Take-Two, Capcom, maybe Ubi or Square are about it in big gaming companies...and so when I say a FEW...yeah....that makes a FEW imho.

I feel the 360 will have its biggest year in 2010 the only reason I believe that is because the next Xbox should be out fall 2011, 360 will most likely not have a bigger year in 2011 due to the hype surrounding the new machine and sales may start to slow down even if they keep manufacturing Xbox 360 and even if the xbox 360 Arcade is $99.

No way. First of all mass effect 2 is on pc. Second lost planet 2 aswell as mass effect 2 might be on ps3. And the ps3 has final fantasy 13 versus, twisted metal, massive action game, metal gear solid 5. That's all I can think of right now.

I'll echo this in a way, except change it to: it was only the price cut, not some rash of announced games, that spurred 360 sales on and prevented PS3 from gaining ground.  The price cut was big enough to hold off a more heavy-hitting PS3 lineup.  Going forward, who knows what will happen on the price front.

I think 2011 for a new xbox console would be extremely aggressive, imho.  The 360 is performing well and M$ probably will want to support a dual console approach, while ensuring full B/C.  Their goal will probably be to ease developers from one console to the new one, and I think 2012 might be the best year.  M$ is going to want to emulate the PC improvements, since you NEVER hear about developers whining about the cost to make better game for PCs, also by that time, all components of the current 360 box will be dirt cheap, and it will be able to fully supplement the cost of rolling out next xbox.  I’m thinking 500GB HDD (or maybe even 250 GB SSD) and some slots for flash memory.  I think M$ keeps the upconverting dvd and try to push flash memory as a means to deliver bigger games…it saves on power and cost of game packaging for one, even if the medium itself is slightly more to cost out…on the volume scale we are talking about though, it might be cost effective.