I guess this Autumn and Winter we'll have some preliminary but significant answers about the future of MS in gaming market. IMVHO it's here to stay, its fears about a big selling console eating an excessive chunk of home computing aren't over, and after Sony, Nintendo could be MS' next target if it starts even vaguely suspecting it could widen its next consoles' features. So, if besides fear, profit too comes to increase motivations, why should MS leave?

BTW already Kinect is actually made to heavily hit Balance Board, so Nintendo with it (although Ninty can survive healthy and profitable enough even if BB sales are heavily crippled), MS is just pretending it's aimed towards Move and Sony only to delay Nintendo's reaction as much as possible.

Without Microsoft we wouldn't have achievements or trophies. For that reason alone we need them to stay. What will they think of next?

And Canada. :)

The reason the US is an important market to be a part of, is because it is probably the most profitable and healthy single videogame market, and thus, the top place most large 3rd parties want to succeed in. It is also the home of many of the top 3rd parties, and thus influences the games that are released and the platforms they are released on.

I believe that Microsoft *would* have left after this generation if 360 hadn't shown the improved marketshare and overall market presence that it has

Fortunately for them, the entire division is turning around somewhat, as even Microsoft can't afford to piss away money  against a company that's moved away from being a direct threat anyway in this economy.

Ultimately they are the most likely of the three to leave (Nintendo will go bankrupt before they leave, and Sony's going to be motivated by the fact that they've seen how glorious having a super-dominant console can be), but i would put the chances at low

I'm a big fan of Sony but I hope Microsoft never leave the console race. They deserve a lot of credit, as do Sony and Nintendo. Healthy competition is allways good:)

We get a lot of great games right now and I'm loving it:)

i expected that CG, and  i agree. failure prone or not if they left i wouldn't miss them, but they are needed.

besides, if they did leave they'd be more like EA, maybe with a MS partners or something, even though there not big on internally developed software or IP's. 

What I would like to see is more first and second party games from microsoft. Imagine if Microsoft would release as much as Nintendo and Sony first and second party games, it would be amazing for gamers. They have the mean to do it, even more, but it dont seem like they have the same mentality in regards to gaming.

Microsoft has lost many millions of dollars in the X-box business.

If Kinect fails, I feel they may be forced to abandon the home console business by investors who are clearly frustrated.

and thats the one reason i will never own a MS console. this gen was there chance to do that and i honestly thought they would.

Rare needs to make a FPS and bring back killer instinct, cause at this rate the 360 will never reach 15 first party/second games that interest me

Oh, it's this thread again.

I'll summarize my opinion again, just for fun.

Microsoft is following the Sony school of making consoles (PS1, PS2). Rushing systems out to release before the main competitors, adding media functions to consoles, not worrying about first party too much, just buy some studios and hope they make something good for your console (Psygnosis, Bungie) and then make deals with third parties for exclusivity and let them do the rest, if a competitor innovates, just copy them etc etc.

I have always hated this style of console. Consoles like this never introduced anything noteworthy to gaming itself and if they were gone tomorrow, people wouldn't notice becasue they never had any true impact on gaming and no legendary game series would die with them either.

I want the Sony school of making consoles gone. The fact that such consoles were collossi on clay feet is clearly showing in this gen, perhaps THEY were the fad all along. Do I want Sony or microsoft gone? No! But I want their philosophies gone.

I like the PS3 more than the PS2 and PS1 combined becasue Sony is actually trying to build up a powerful first party for it (Better late than never). Microsoft on the other hand seriously needs more first party studios, quick.

A very interesting question, that would probably have a very interresting answer is, what if Nintendo managed to steal all the third party support and make a PS2 but with Nintendo games as well, and start making deals to keep all third party games exclusive, what would the others have left?