while sony are the one facing financial ruin, i can still see them riding console hardware all the way into the abyss.
i think the gaikai woman is implying that the next xbox won't be a gaming console, which makes absolute sense and mirrors much of what we've been hearing. xbox will become a supplementary service brand, incorporated into microsoft's new living room convergence device. it's been their end-game since the beginning. a metro/kinect powered tv box with hd gaming functionality - or atleast, as much hd gaming functionality as a <100w gpu can afford.
if xbox was microsoft's ipod, nextbox will be their iphone. sure, you can still play music on it, but it's far from its primary function.
Yeah, good points. I've been thinking the similar things for awhile now.
I wonder if MS is going to just put out a console within the same spec range of the Wii U (though don't worry you tech-whores, it'll still probably be more powerful), combine it with living room functions and an advanced kinect like ghst suggested, and call it a day. In the current state of the video game industry, 3rd parties aren't going to be able to afford not supporting whatever the largest common denominator is (Wii U + Nextbox). The games will come flowing freely, I don't think MS will ever have to worry about that again unless they put something out more akin to the Wii in relation to modern consoles. So if the games are going to be coming no matter what and they have the best online space already, what's the point in bleeding money from costly hardware? Xbox is really close to becoming a household name, if it isn't one already. They could use that as their trojan device to get windows 8 to dominate the living room.
Think about their current 1st party lineup. Is it fair to say it's pretty pitiful? They've got Halo (which will always be the console's main mascot game), and a bunch of kinect sports stuff. Even if they abstain from spending a cent on incentives for third party next gen, the games are still going to come. Xbox live and dev costs will make sure of that.