Good article.
I do hate Microsoft, before you all hop on saying "Fanboy" because of the 360, that's wrong.
I hate Microsoft for VARIOUS reasons, that not all involve Xbox 360.

People need to stop with the Microsoft is evil and greedy BS. Bill Gates gives more money to charity than all of the Sony and Nintendo executives combined...

oh man, i can't tell you how badly you just embarassed yourself.

the hd consoles are dumbed down, casual, expensive pc's, in online, and pretty much every other aspect.

that's right, i said it. hd consoles are casual!

I asked you to think about it. You obviously didn't.

Sony would have no incentive to lure 3rd parties to their console.

Home wouldn't exist, rumble would still be a last gen feature, the price would be higher, the games would be fewer and worse, and Sony would probably eventually figure out they could charge us for PSN with no real comptition anyway.

Without MS, how would the PS3 be better?

Now..the Wii would hugely benefit from the 360 being kicked out of the market. 3rd party developers would no longer have a reason to choose multiplat development for the PS360 over the Wii. Especially since the PS3 is so difficult and costly to develop for. Some PC developers would revert strictly to PC, and some console developers, to Wii. The PS3s library would suffer, while the PC and Wii gained several exclusives that would once have been PS3 multiplats.

It's also likely Sony would see less of a need to create 1st party games. No need to lure anyone in, when they have fewer or no choices. No need to pay for DLC, or run promotional bundles. No need to drop the price. No need to help the consumer.

I'm just glad that petty whims only blow one way.

Before I respond to this, do you know what PROFITS are? Your first line says "no, I do not."

PC gaming is an overcomplicated, pirate-happy, buggy, crash-prone, expensive, and derivitive, DRM fest, whose supposed superiority is based upon nude mods, graphics, and conventional simplistic controls, and is slowly being phased out of mainstream HD gaming by HD popular consoles, developers, lack of a first party, piracy, non-uniformity in hardware, and ever increasing barriers to entry.

I'm a PC gamer. Pretending that it's all roses on this side of the ball is pure marketing. You invested more in your PC, and thus you are invested more in its success. Same reason PS3 fanboys are the most rabid. Their console costs the most. They need to work out 400 bucks worth of cognitive dissonance.

Apparently all the top executives at Microsoft wear dark robes and refer to each other with the first name "Darth".

And what's NOT awesome about that?

           I just have to give props to Leo-J for this post.  Well written, intelligent and honest.  It sums up my thoughts regarding this.  Nice post Leo-J, I almost didnt believe it was from you.......no offense.....