As the 360 heads towards it's 1st birthday, it will face it's latest and most critical test yet...the launches of the PS3 and Wii. As you know up until now, the 360 has been the only player on the next generation court, but now must face off against the two new, highly anticipated rookies.

As far as the 360's first year performance (noting a few "over-heating" issues), if I were to assign it a grade, it would be a slightly less than solid B. While it doesn't look like MS will reach the 10 million installed units they wanted to have in place by time the PS3 released, they have sold around 6 mil worldwide last that i've heard which is still a pretty solid number nonetheless.

Microsoft has also has built up a great base of third parties who've been providing sweet software like Oblivion and Dead Rising along with its own stellar in house efforts. And Xbox Live still reigns as the champ when it comes to the console internet gaming arena.

Question is..will it be enough for the the 360 to maintain it's lead throughout the upcoming hardware war. Both the Wii and PS3 are worthy challengers to the 360 offering features which could redirect dollars once slated for Microsoft's baby. And to said consumer, what features will she or he deem the most important in determining if they should go with a 360 or pick up one of the others?

As far as the answers to those questions...in all honesty I have no friggin' idea. No matter what anybody tells you, let's face it folks, we're gonna have to sit back, relax, and let this muther play itself out. And personally, I can't wait to see the bloodshed begin. As was once was so rightly said..."Let the bodies hit the floor".