I disagree.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/jun/10/googleukclosesinon90mark

It's an old article, but you get the idea. I have not met a single person in the last five years or so (okay, maybe one or two people) who use anything other than Google. That is a monopoly, in every sense of the word.

I mean Live Messenger ..... is there a Google Messenger? If there is I have never heard of it.

Kantor said: Anyway, I agree with your thoughts, and I still stand by my conclusion that the PS3 will win this holiday if the 360 does not have a price cut of any kind, and if it does, then it is possible for the 360 to win, but only in exceptional circumstances- a LARGE price cut. Certainly, there is a Halo game, but it isn't as long as a full Halo, (and it doesn't run in 720p! lol ) and it is the second Halo on the system, which means it cannot hope for the same impact as the first full Gran Turismo in 5 years, and the first on the console or, in Japan, the first Final Fantasy on a current gen console, both of which are PS3 exclusive and are pretty much confirmed for this holiday season. So it's not the Slim and Pricecut alone that Sony are banking on, it's Slim + Price cut + huge game in Japan + huge game worldwide. Not to mention that a price cut of $50 wouldn't have as much effect as a $100 one (presumably, Microsoft wouldn't cut the Arcade to $99 so early); the most logical price cut for Microsoft, in my opinion, would be a $170 Arcade, $250 Pro and $300 Elite. If they can afford those, of course. And the 360 is already at the so-called "mass market price" of $200, so a cut below that wouldn't have as much effect as a cut going down to it. But you're usually right about these kind of things, so I don't know! Why must you perplex me so Squilliam ;_;

The fact that Halo 3 has already been released makes Halo: ODST an excellent bundle opportunity as the bulk of the userbase would buy most of the copies the want to buy within the first month anyway and that leaves room for them to just give it away. They wouldn't really lose any money from such a bundle and like with Forza 3 the two of them together make for an excellent pairing like they had in 2007 with the F2, MUA, VP bundle. The important metric isn't the price of the console out the door alone its the price of the console out the door with the software that people want. Final Fantasy and GT5 are important, but they have both already had teasers and its been known for years that they were coming to the PS3 which mitigates their impact somewhat.

I think the current situation is much closer to Christmas 2007 than Christmas 2008 as we're expecting both a $100 PS3 price cut and a Halo/Forza game to come out in the near future along with Uncharted! Remember how close the Christmas of 2007 was inspite of the useless Core (no memory card IIRC) being $280 and the Premium console being only $50 cheaper than the PS3? The results ended up being far closer than anyone imagined coming into the Christmas season but the difference which will tip it in the 360s favour is the far cheaper entry price on the Arcade console.

Im not 100% sure though because I can't quite pick Microsofts motivations for the next few months and without that it makes it harder to pick what they will do. If it makes you feel better I expect a $299 to repeat early 2008 and you know what happened then!

Oh yeah, Microsoft definitely dominates messengers. I have Google Talk (yes, there is one), but pretty much nobody else does- I only use MSN (or Windows Live as it's now called).

In fact, they have a majority in EVERYTHING except MP3 players, consoles and web search.

do you say again when did the xbox 360 reign Christmas.

I'm pretty positive the 360 will beat the PS3 during the holiday season, though by not as much as last year

^ Yup, this is just a follow up to my official prediction I made way back...

I haven't really been following SKUs and all that, but to be honest I think Microsoft just have the stronger holiday lineup this year. We all know Call of Duty sells well on both consoles, but exceedingly better on 360, and 360 also has a new Halo-game and Forza coming out.

PS3 has Uncharted 2 (which admittedly looks fantastic, but it's not as mainstream as, say, Halo), and maybe Gran Turismo 5 ... Is there anything else? I'm not sure.

From what I've seen and heard so far Microsoft seem like they'll be coming out on top this holiday season as well... Not counting Nintendo of course ;)

@majin

There's also Ratchet crack in time and M.A.G since the official word for this is still 09 release.

Well, I can't predict the future, but I assume MS will drop their prices as soon as Sony start outselling the 360. It will be a close battle.

Japan, Others = ps3

NA = 360