Re:M$ is not ready for this (Score 1)

Maybe it'll bomb, but I doubt it. How many people said Sony wasn't ready to jump into the console market? Don't underestimate the power of brand and marketing. Microsoft hasn't, that's why Bill Gates is richer than God.
Anyone remember the Panasonic 3DO? Arguably the best, but undoubtedly the most dead and buried 32 bit gaming system. Certainly Panasonic had the brand name and marketing power going for it, so why did it fail so miserably?
The thing about the game console market is that it operates on a principle of momentum that ripples through a number of levels. The most basic level of this momentum begins with the consumer: when a few kids living on a particular street in Generica, USA buy a particular console, all the other kids on their street have incentives to buy the same console. This allows them to all borrow games from friends without blowing their precious small allowances on new games. It also lets them trade game secrets & tips and makes it easier to engage in multiplayer games since everyone is familiar with the same game. This momentum from the consumer ripples over to developers making more games for that particular console, which makes more people buy that console, etc.
The point here is that X-Box's success will depend on a number of vital things aside from marketing $'s. Its equally important that it is the console first to market in its class with several eagerly-awaited killer titles that make the early adopters go out and buy the machine in the first place.
If Microsoft is as sloppy about this as they are about everything else, we can expect that they will flounder early on and then make a bunch of marketing execs rich while trying to catch up.