"Moore: Absolutely. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Day one--do you remember PlayStation 2's day one lineup?"
look, MS, this is your problem in a nut shell.
You aren't the industry leader - you can't compare your performance to what the industry leader did at the LAST launch.
You have to do it better and bigger than the industry leader will do for their NEXT launch.
I'm getting so tired of this stance - if you want to be the best you have to beat the best at what they WILL do , not what they HAVE done.
I know even i've complained about Sony showing stuff that may not be 100% in game etc etc... but hey, if it was my job at MS to push the X360 i'd _know_ and _expect_ sony to do this and i'd be ready to counter act what they show. Not with "oh that's fake" but with similarly demo'ed future products or show reels.
And if it's a marathon and not a sprint, why on earth did they race to launch? If there are only 6 games available, with games delayed then they are obviously running way too fast _and_ they could have potentially added a larger capacity format.
If MS believe their own line that the PS3 and X360 are the same in terms of performance, and that they have good solid support, with great online etc - then they should have delayed to get rid of the non-HD media support issue and have some more launch title games finished.
I have a feeling that the truth is that they knew they can't compete with Sonys "loss and recoup" model on games consoles without burning a shed load of money on doing a similar tactic.
"Problem is, 'moneyhats' aren't as common a practice in Japan as they are in the West, and many Japanese companies are against the notion; especially coming from an American powerhouse such as MS."
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA are you kidding me? Do you know how many people get busted for accepting illegal "money hats" each year in japan? Good god.