"It is a wonderful term coming from the Everquest community. I believe it was originally a term referring to a stronger guild blocking the progression of a weaker guild. It is also a commonly used term when describing artifical progression blockers by SOE game design."

How old are you? Cockblock means to stop a guy from getting the girl. If you are going to secks a girl (assuming you are a guy), and a friend comes in and says things against you with thee intention of stopping you from getting some, then that friend is cockblocking.

Everquest community did not make that term up, it existed like in the sixties. And even Tupac said it on his albums, years before Everquest was around.
How weird. Everquest...

Really?  I thought it originally came from when you were hitting on some girl and some other guy came over and completly ruined your hitting on the girl.

Exactly. So it's possible all three could win this generation. The Sony win is the only one that is really in any doubt at this point.

The Everquest community??  You need to get out more.

Yeah, it's an open secret that MS really got into the video game space because they were concerned about Sony's ambition to control the living room. So while the Xbox loses money for MS from a video game perspective, it may help them make more in other areas.

Uuuuh, yeah.  What Kasz216 said.  It didn't originate from EQ

Success can also be measured in relation to past performance ...

If Microsoft can break the 30 Million unit barrier, sell more than 1 Million units in Japan, and break even on the generation I think that this could be considered a successful generation for them.

That's because Sony went all Rambo trying to fight on multiple fronts at one time!

I'd love to hear their definition on losing.

Yeah Sean Malstrom called this one for sure. They knew they couldn't come in here and beat Nintendo and it looks like that wasn't their goal. The gaming business is just part of a larger strategy the company has for its other aims. Microsoft goaded Sony into a game of chicken and Sony took the bait. Kutaragi's first words when Microsoft threw their hat into the gamebiz ring was that Microsoft was their biggest competitor not Nintendo.

That spoke volumes and it explains how Sony overlooked Nintendo on the handheld front (PSP wasn't just supposed to be a solid alternative to Nintendo handheld dominance. It was supposed to resurrect handheld gaming from the "gaming ghetto" pushing Nintendo out of the biz entirely), subsequently the console front, and why Sony suddenly decided they had to make a high-priced supercomputer out of a game console in order to 1-up Microsoft.

They should put up warning signs on the beach of that Red Ocean. Even the Baywatch gang ain't chancing it in THOSE serious seas.

John Lucas 

Sometimes the Microsoft pronouncements sound like they are coming from the mouths of someone in the grips of a powerful drug. Ironically I have talked to people in the grips of some powerful drugs. That were not only more coherent, but easier to rationalize with. Thats why it is so difficult to believe these people are actually serious.

I keep forgetting irony is not a well known concept in some parts of the world.