2 things

WiiU definately opened up a......you say blue ocean. i say galaxy of new born starz.  

i hope the bold was intended, because it was gold.

...and probably all but the last two belong to Wii

Europe is like... 47 markets? They need to get their shit together.

Japan just wants JRPGs and 3DS. They don't buy much of Sony's software and that's why Sony primarily makes games for the west.

MS came from nothing with this gen, Sony gambled hard this gen, this was the result. Seemingly, at least in the beginning, MS did everything right while Sony stumbled constantly. You can look at it either way....
-MS was able to really compete with their massive wealth and perfect advertising capabilities in an area completely dominated by Sony. Stealing massive market share and recognition in the States.
or
-It took Recession,constant and unrelenting bias of the media, frequent fumbling advert efforts, factory destroying Tsunami, a $600 price tag, and opponent year head start to even dent the Playstation brand. Yet it still stayed relevant when that amount of bad press would have sunk a lesser company eons ago.

And out of all of those I think the MOST damning of it all was the marketing/advertisement of the PS3. MS's was just so on point in every venue for the 360. Sony's was very hit and miss. Every PS3 blunder was made permanently public while massive ones for 360 were covered up very well. If Sony had the Marketing know how of MS(once upon a time they did), Playstation would still be "defacto" market leader.

I hope with PS4, they get that fire back. I will probably always root for them as I didn't truly become a gamer till Playstation :)

Hey I think your on point with your opinions, but the RROD was not covered up at all. At first MS balked at the idea of doing anything before the majority of people complained and demanded/fixes and refunds. MS spent over ONE BILLION  to take care of the situation and ended up making the 360 S to take care of future RROD problems, as well as offering several iterations of the original console via chipsets (Jasper, Vahalla, etc.) . 

The RROD fiasco was VERY public and most likely ended up hurting MS with future console sales. I'm sure people will say "Well most people went out and bought a new system anyways." while this may be the case for some people, I have a feeling if you couldn't afford a new console for sometime you were either going to save for a PS3 or forrget MS all together after the fiasco.

I'm sure people will think twice about buying a new xbox come next gen because of the RROD fiasco alone (I'll be buying mine at launch, but not without some sort of warranty).

Heres a link to the RROD write off that I could find http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9026340/Xbox_360_red_ring_of_death_costs_Microsoft_more_than_1B

PS3 will outsell 360, but 360 put up a good fight.

Also, something to point out, in an alligned launch comparision PS3 outsold 360 for the first 5 alligned years. However 360 outsold PS3 in the 6th year alligned, and unless PS3 can top 9.81 million units in 2013 (which I doubt with successor consoles likey to release/be announced this year, and WiiU growing), 360 should outsell PS3 in the alligned 7th year. Maybe even years 8-10 as well. So while PS3 started better, 360 ended better.

P.S. In an alligned launch comparision, 360 outsold the PS2 in it's 6th year, but the PS3 has never outsold the PS2. In the 6th year 360 sold 14.1 million units, and PS2 sold 13.66 million units. PS3 did 11.28 in the corresponding year, and that's also the closest PS3 sales have been to PS2 sales in a corresponding year.

How do you think Sony closed the ten million console gap after launching a year late? They beat them the majority of the years on the market. Microsoft has been holding onto a thread for a while. Kinect was the last trick up their sleeve.

360 has more exclusives LOL

MS put up a good fight, and pre-2009 it was the console of choice. Esxclusives were better, the price was more affordable, and in general it was a better console.

However post 2009, MS kind of gave up. All we see are Halo sequels, remakes, and prequels, Forza after Forza, and just the same few brands over and over. No more 3rd party or unique exclusives like Lost Odyssey, Too Human, or Tales of Vesperia, and the few new IP's are available on PC (e.g. Alan Wake).

Credit where credit is due.

Sony eventually came thrugh to the gamers, and 2009-201? PS3 is the best 7th gen system to have.
Ms did extremely well, giving itself a brand name, outpacing the PS3 upto the release of 8th gen consoles.
Nintendo really did well, going from 3rd to 1st, making AAA iterations of their best franchises (Mario Galaxy is arguably the best Mario 3D platformer, Skyward Sword, XenoBlade, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Metroid Prime, etc, all among the best games Nintendo has ever made).

this post sums up what happened this gen nicely. this is exactly how it was.

I think he meant to say that had the RROD originated from Sony, their ability to sweep it under the carpet would have been much less efficient that Microsoft's.

I think all his points are valid. Any lesser company would have gone under after a PS3 like product but Sony was able to absorb the hit and live to tell the tale.

Next gen will be interesting though in the sense that Microsoft is in a significant better position than they were before the X360 and on the other hand, Sony is now aware it actually  has competitors so must fight back.