I think people are way over anticipating the affect of GT5 and FFXIII. The Slim really has no affect on overall sales, it's the price cut that was important.

We have no idea what the Slim will be like performance wise for at least a few months (early reports of possible overheating on a few units?), GT sales and hype have been decreasing with recent iterations and more competing options are now available (NFS Shift, Forza 3), and FFXIII is only Japan. I have no doubt FF13 will make a nice bump for that region, but that won't help save them in the world wide holiday season.

I still expect more pricing options to be announce by MS since dropping the Elite to $299 is basically costing them nothing and could actually be increasing their profit margins for that machine now.  I think the Elite will got to $249 or see some sort of addition before the final holiday season weeks.  Arcade may drop to $149 to maintain the 50% cheaper than the PS3 ratio.

you don't think it had competitors in 2005?  Have you ever heard of a ps2?  or a gamecube?

They dont have 199 but they have the God of War Collection comming out for the holidays. 

You are the antichrist Squilliam!!! You are misleading us sheep-gamers away from the gaming lord!

LOL lmao

You could argue that 360 had more competition because Sony was pushing the ever popular PS2 in the first year of 360's existence...  A $129 console vs. the $400 360...

And you could also argue that the cost is irrelevant as Sony could sell their console for $199 but they haven't been able to bring the costs far enough to justify the move...

Really the excuses are all used up.  After the Cell processor being superior, free PSN, Home, Killzone 2, LBP , Uncharted , Motorstorm released, Haze, MGS4, price drops, and now the slim, the 360 is still hanging in...  Sony is pulling out all the stops and 360 is keeping pace. 

If anyone would have told me 360 would be ahead of PS3 in year three of the PS3's existence back in 2005 I would have told them they were dreaming...   Yet, here we are in PS3 year three, and 360 has kept Sony in check the entire way.  One could argue that 360 now has the advantage.  They can still redesign the 360 to a slim, they have online gaming locked up, they have been more profitable even with RRoD, they are getting full 3rd party support, they have more 3rd party exclusives, etc.  Heck, even though the Cell is better on paper, it looks like 360 has even held its own technically with arguably better programming toolkits and hardware throughput design.  And Sony has been reacting to stay in the game...  Dropped backward compatibility, dropped card slots, cheaped out on buttons, released Home too early, announced games years away from completion, price dropping knowing they will lose money, and I really don't think the plan had a slim in year 3 of the "10 year plan"...

Because of rrod so many people have bought more than just 1 xbox and so for a fact to be honest 360 costs more than a ps3..