Have people meanwhile become a little more open minded towards the PS3 beating the 360 this christmas?

No so much open minded as completly shut up. Theres nothing you can say when the facts are right in front of you. The PS3 is outselling the Xbox360 with higher price and less games.

Try and twist it as much as you want, but the PS3 is here to stay, and unless something desperate is done on the 360's part, the PS3 will drain all the progress its made.

Its not as cut and dry as 360 fans want it to be. More games, lower price isn't everthing. The PS3 has a wider selection, and more features. And brand name is helping Sony and hurting the Xbox360. The 360 is in danger. Its still coming off of Halo 3 right now, but before that the consoles were evenly matched all year, something that no one talks about.

With no Halo in 2008, can the Xbox really keep pace with the PS3 and its software giants? It would have to sell MUCH better than this year since the PS3 will move atleast 12 million next year. It now has Europe, its best selling region right now the entire year, and the best developers in gaming all making exclusives.

The Wii is the target 2008, but I can't see the 360 being significant anymore unless they drop the price below $200, which will in turn put them below the Wii's price point and make them look desperate.

Jandre, so the PS3 outselling the 360 by a couple thousand consoles, within margin of error, is destroying the 360s progress? Hmmm...you definitely aren't a fanboy or anything...

{edit} I haven't seen the new numbers, but I hear the PS3 is doing really good in others.  Still though, that doesn't mean things are as bleak for the 360 as you would like to think.  The PS3 has A LOT of catching up to do, no matter what, and on the scale of things, still has a mountain to climb to get back in it.  The 360 can still offer up a nice price cut at the beginning of next year, and it wont hurt MS at all.  Until all those AAA PS3 games actually come out, and actually turn out to be AAA, I am reserving judgement. 

I'll admit the PS3 has done a lot better than I thought - most of which has come from Europe. Just shows that where the 360 is weaker, the PS3 is stronger (excluding Japan).

That said - its *still* a statistical tie. A difference of 20k over 600k sales is just over 3% - anything less than 5% is basically a tie. The numbers will also be revised in the future, and these tweaks could change the outcome.

In electoral terms - "Its too close to call".

Look at this graph - someone tell me that either the PS3 or 360 is "dominating" (or even beating!) the other - its so close its scary!

http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii&reg1=All&cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=X360&reg3=All&start=39397&end=39439

Well - I'm ready to eat crow. The PS3 has easily beaten out the 360 this week, and its become the deciding (and last) week of the year. 360 sales in the US has fallen way too heavily.

So well done PS3! You managed to outsell the 360 this holiday season (possibly by as little as 5%, but it still counts).

Can MS stage a comeback next year? I definitely get the feeling that MS have *something* waiting in the wings - the question is what...

I think at this point its fair to say that if the PS3 drops its price to 299 the Xbox360 is in serious trouble, regardless of what it does. I dont think America is anywhere lost to the 360. I think what we have seen is old Xbox owners/Halo fans buy the 360. There have been a few converters from the PS2, but not nearly as many as people were making it out to be.

The Xbox360 needed more this year. If it could have dropped below the $200 dollar mark it very well may have been the console of choice. Before the end of Feb, I predict we will see the PS3 pass the 360 in NA atleast once. The PS3 wont drop in price before March, and will probably drop right before either MGS4 or GTA4, whichever comes first.

@Shams , Reading your last two posts in succession made me laugh.
I never thought PS3 would outsell 360 this Holiday.
BUT I do get the feeling (like you said) that Microsoft is going to drop something big on us. They seem to be sitting idle, but I doubt that is the case.

PS3 is the winner!!!

Well 99.9% of the site said ps3 would come last

and 50% said ps3 would die.

well the ps3 has proven me wrong before, it can easily prove me wrong again.