PS3 is an online machine.Sony saw the succses of xbox live and thought we could do that. Microsoft is in trouble if sony get it right this time round i wasnt that impressed with ps2 but it still outsold xbox almost 5 to 1 round the world because everyone and his dog knows what a playstation is,and the masses associate sony with cool things like the walkman and expensive tv's dvd players, where microsoft is known for making buggy operating systems and unfairly using its size and power to put compeitors out of business(rebel get firefox!). Microsoft does not have a cool factor in the world at large. Sony is also a large greedy corperation but dont have the same negative image that microsoft has. But they have never got close to a monopoly in any area of their business. Apart from maybe the odd mac user do you know anyone who uses a non windows operating system? Standardisation is good in some respects but a monopoly is not good for the consumer. It may sell in the states cause its an american product and americans like to spend their money patrioticaly(bet sony at least matches it though), but that will not cut the mustard in europe(sonys biggest market) or japan and without really cracking those markets xbox 360 will continue the trend of microsoft losing money to stay in the console game. Microsoft is a big rich company but they can only continue losing money for so long.