hahahahahahahaha mate do me a favour, never get into business..... possibly the stupidest thing ive ever read in my life!

why? They would like to...but they have money from other areas...its not crucial...they know the lose money and will continue doing it. They are at the moment setting themseelves up as a Home Entertainment brand. Much like SKY tv etc.

They will make money eventually but for now its about brand establishment and stopping Sony grow too big. That way when things change Ms will be there aswell.

Microsoft DO plan to make money on the 360. It's their aim to make a profit in 2008, by their own admission.

Although they still have the 4 million deficit to make up from the original Xbox.

y then? lol

EDIT: kool thanks for the ermm long info :)now ermm I'm going to built myself a super rocket with loads of PS3s and rocket myself into another planet...or even another space....woooooooooooooooo VAVOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM

2012 is sometimes claimed to be a great year of spiritual transformation (or apocalypse). Many esoteric sources interpret the completion of the thirteenth B'ak'tun cycle in the Long Count of the Maya calendar (which occurs on December 21 by the most widely held correlation) to mean there will be a major change in world order.

* Polar Shift is a theory that on December 21st 2012 Earth will experience earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or other natural disasters.
* NASA predicts that the Sun will also reverse its own magnetic poles during 2012 as result of reaching the end of the current 11-year sunspot cycle.

Accordingly, several eclectic authors claim that a major, world-changing event will take place in 2012:

* The 1995 book The Mayan Prophecies linked the Maya calendar with long-period sunspot cycles.
* The book 2012: Mayan Year of Destiny claims the Maya may have been instructed in their wisdom by discarnate entities from Orion and the Pleiades. Contact was maintained through shamanic rituals conducted in accordance with the movements of planets and stars.
* However, Mayan priests living and working in Guatemala aver that the so-called Mayan Prophecy for 2012, as touted by various foreign New Agers who have no knowledge of Mayan culture, language, or religion, is twaddle.
* The 1997 book The Bible Code claims that, according to certain algorithms of the Bible code, a meteor, asteroid or comet will collide with the Earth.
* The book The Nostradamus Code speaks of a series of natural disasters caused by a comet (possibly as above) that will allow the third Antichrist to disperse his troops around the globe under the guise of aid in preparation for a possible nuclear war, although in the strictest sense it is unspecific as to nuclear war or some other natural or man caused destruction.
* NASA: In 2012, asteroid 2004MN4 comes into view again to recalculate odds of impact.
* The book The Orion Prophecy claims that the Earth's magnetic field will reverse.
* The 2005 book Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Ecstasy by Geoff Stray reviews several theories, prophecies and predictions concerning 2012 and finds where authors have used faulty information or have bent the truth to fit their theories.
* The 2006 book 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck discusses theories of a possible global awakening to psychic connection by the year 2012, creating a noosphere.
* The 2007 book Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation into Civilization's End by Lawrence Joseph does not make any specific new predictions, but it reviews a number of 2012 predictions made by various sources, and presents arguments for the possible existence of dangerous positive feedback loops involving solar storms, Earth's magnetic field, cosmic rays, hurricanes, global warming, earthquakes, and supervolcanoes that may be on the verge of erupting.

Other prophecies and apocalyptic writings and hypotheses for this year include:

* Terence McKenna's mathematical novelty theory suggests a point of singularity in which humankind will go through a great shift in consciousness.
* The Prophecy of the Popes, attributed to Saint Malachy, speculated that Pope Benedict XVI would reign during the beginning of the tribulation of which Jesus spoke, and sometime later a future pope described in the prophecy as "Peter the Roman", the last in this prophetic list, would appear, bringing as a result the destruction of the city of Rome and the Last Judgment.
* Some proponents of a peak oil catastrophe place major events in 2012. Richard C. Duncan's book The Peak of World Oil Production and the Road To The Olduvai Gorge claims that the Olduvai cliff will begin and permanent blackouts will occur worldwide. Several studies predict a peak in oil production in or around 2012.
* Some alien-enthusiasts (e.g. Riley Martin), along with some new-agers, believe 2012 to correspond approximately with the return of alien "watchers" or "caretakers" who might have helped the first human civilizations with developing their technology and may have been waiting for us to reach a higher level of technological and/or social advancement. Beliefs range from the extra-terrestrials having benevolent purposes — such as to help human society evolve — to malevolent purposes — such as enslavement of mankind and/or manipulation.
* There is a Hindu following indicating the appearance of an Avatar (God in human form) with God-like powers who will herald a new age. A website to this effect appears at: End of the World 2012

Yeah crimson,

you know about the Mayan Prophecy as well. I can't wait I am going to a huge party.lol.

It is to Sony fanboys... To them this is news that's aimed to justify their PS3 purchase and Blu-ray leg humping.

Yeah I have posted some articles that talk about Sony being in financial trouble, and why their recent games have turned out badly but they never had a chance of being front paged.

ok let me solve your problem...

MICRSOFT is a SOFTWARE COMPANY!!!!!!

They got into the hardware business and the other businesses to diversify... But the core area of Microsoft is SOFTWAREEE... Windows, Office, Visual Basic, etc. etc. etc.

What does any of this have to do with making movies and the SAG and etc. etc. They are a part of the HD-DVD because it is a STORAGE MEDIA that they can use and maybe they have some partners in that area they can help out. This is how business is done on that level. It doesn't HURT MS to say ... yeah we're backing HD-DVD. They can easily switch to BLURAY... BLURAY MOVIE PLAYER ADDON anyone? Microsoft doesn't really lose to much to back HD-DVD they are probibly a technology partner which means they give a little research and programming muscle.

The problem right now is that SONY is relying on the PS3... Heavily. Just look at there finanacials over the last 2 years. Will SOny die out... No... they are WAY WAY diversified. They might have to scale back to their core businesses but i amnot sure we will see it dieee as such.

The problem is MICROSOFT is that yes they are getting outmanuevered by smaller new versitile companies (Goggle and Yahoo!) but what is Google really selling? what is Yahoo really selling? to get to Yahoo or Goggle 80% of the world uses what??/ ahhh Microsoft software ;) see now you begin to see. Also... MS could shut down the whole Xbox division right now and other than a minor case of corporate indigestion they wouldn't feel it. it is small potatos to lose 1-2 billion a year to a company like Microsoft.

see now it makes a little more sense...right?

ok i gotcha... I see what you are saying now.