Microsoft has its work cut out for it.

That's the news from Xbox.ign.com-- an Xbox gaming site.

What's going on here?

While IGN admitted Halo was impressive, they don't think it's quite enough to sell systems all by itself, and the supporting cast of games wasn't quite there yet:

Halo will be the best console FPS to hit a console this side of PS2 Half-Life, but outside that, the big guns didn't look so massive at E3.

And while Sony may have in part bungled the lead in the market they should have gained with a year's head start, it seems they have righted themselves since then, and it'll be no mean feat for MS to unseat them:

As a result, we'd clearly say Sony walked away with the most impressive showing of this year's electronic Entertainment Expo. Not Gamecube. Not Xbox. The PS2 smacked them both down, no contest. They didn't exactly steal the show, they just came right in and took it.

[...]

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that this market is incredibly tight. With Sony doing a great job of catering to the 18 and Over market and Nintendo locking down the younger crowd with a mere snap of their white-gloved fingers, the problem is no longer as easy as it used to be, as being the best is no longer good enough. You now have to actually be the best, and convince the public that you are even better. At this point, you have two major competitors controlling the two primary outlets of market enthusiasm, and unless you destroy the notion that they are as awesome as they seem, it doesn't matter what you do to build yourself up.

From what we witnessed, it seems as if Microsoft is more concerned with building up their model in Sony's image, and the fact is, the PlayStation 2 is doing just fine on establishing dominance. Trying to wholly steal the PS2's market share will be damned near impossible without some sort of unique hook. From where we're sitting, Microsoft is already lagging behind in several key areas such as: Internet functionality, 3rd party support, their user install base and public perception, and they just don't seem to want to concede that more is needed to get over this hump of consumer apathy.

While it seems nearly universal that Halo is the Xbox's 800 lb. gorilla, that alone might not be enough to beat back Sony and Nintendo. Time will tell.