Topic: Will Nintendo Always Be Playing Catch-Up to Other Companies?

The going further into becoming a mediabox isn't speculation its happening slowly. I can buy a season pass for Mad Men on my Zune player PC app and I will also have it on my xbox and windows phone.

Also The OG xbox and the 360 were based on windows kernals.

For example tomorrow the Xbox Love metro dashborad goes live (going to repost my pictures from the beta then) and the xbox is getting apps for media. Showing my mom this made her get a 4G xbox and kinect for herself as an easy to use content box. The only games she has are bejweled and the Pac-man stuff. But she's getting it for this.

On Tuesday, December 6th the latest update to the Xbox 360 dashboard will be available to consoles around the world. In addition to new and updated features, if you have Kinect you’ll be able to say it and Xbox will find it with Bing Search.

Today we also announced the following partners and apps are coming soon to Xbox 360:

US:

Dec. 6:

• EPIX. United States
• ESPN on Xbox LIVE (ESPN). United States
• Hulu Plus. United States
• Netflix. Canada, United States
• TODAY (MSNBC). United States

Later in December:

• Crackle (Sony Pictures). Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States
• Dailymotion. Available in 32 countries globally
• iHeartRadio (Clear Channel). United States
• MSNBC.com. United States
• TMZ (Warner Bros.). Canada, United States
• UFC on Xbox LIVE (UFC). Canada, United States
• Verizon FiOS TV. United States
• VEVO. Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States
• Vudu (Wal-Mart). United States
• YouTube. Available in 24 countries globally

Early 2012:

• CinemaNow (Best Buy). United States
• HBO GO (HBO). United States
• MLB.TV (MLB Advanced Media). Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States
• Xfinity On Demand (Comcast). United States

Canada:

Dec. 6:

• Netflix. Canada, United States

Later in December:

• Astral Media’s Disney XD (Astral Media). Canada
• Crackle (Sony Pictures). Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States
• Dailymotion. Available in 32 countries globally
• MSN. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom
• Real Sports (Maple Leaf Sports). Canada
• Rogers On Demand Online (Rogers Media). Canada
• TMZ (Warner Bros.). Canada, United States
• UFC on Xbox LIVE (UFC). Canada, United States
• YouTube. Available in 24 countries globally

Early 2012:

• MLB.TV (MLB Advanced Media). Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States

UK:

Dec. 6:

• LOVEFiLM. United Kingdom

Later in December:

• 4 on Demand (C4). United Kingdom
• AlloCiné. France (AlloCiné), Germany (Filmstarts), Spain (Sensacine), United Kingdom (Screenrush)
• blinkbox (Blinkbox). United Kingdom
• Crackle (Sony Pictures). Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States
• Dailymotion. Available in 32 countries globally
• Demand 5 (Five). United Kingdom
• MSN. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom
• MUZU.TV. Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom
• ninemsn. Australia
• VEVO. Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States
• YouTube. Available in 24 countries globally

Early 2012:

• BBC (BBC). United Kingdom
• MLB.TV (MLB Advanced Media). Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States
• Telenovelas/Sports (Televisa). Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom

All that made her choose and Xbox Over the other two. She doesn't feel bad for paying for Live becuase it allows her to use a number of services that she enjoys. She only uses the controller for Pacman/bejeweled now. Anything else she uses a combination of Voice controls and motion. That's where the future of TV and input is going. Telling your TV to play something or flicking thru netflix is a more natural experience than using a controller.

Microsoft is mostly a corporate business company. Its entertainment division is a relatively small part of its pie. Sony is mostly an entertainment company. Microsoft doesn't make much hardware, Sony has a substantial hardware R & D department.

I could go on and on, but really, go and do your own research. The differences between the two companies is massive and very obvious. These differences mean they'll never unify their cloud strategies.

As to your second point - 99% of games journalists are not trained business writers. You wouldn't ask them to write for a medical science publication, and if you're getting your business news from them then you're doing it wrong. There is very little correlation between games press and commerce press.

Secondly, it is most definately not "just" speculation what will happen to these companies in 10 years. Every major corporation in the world has plans that extend out for 5 years, and then less definite plans for 10 years. Microsoft has been working on its cloud stuff for years already. I was at a conference a couple of years ago when Steve Ballmer himself said quite simply "if you're not in the cloud, we're not the company for you."