I mean is there any way for Sony to screw this up?

They have the best chipset of the three and the most reasonably priced one since both Nintendo and MS got hung up on including expensive control devices in their boxes.

They are a full $100 cheaper than MS. Their system is easy to develop for. Third parties reportedly love it, so it will get a ton of devleoper support and perhaps have the best multi-plats.

Sony's embraced indie gaming as well and is even scooping up some of the more promising ones as exclusive. Their 1st/2nd party studios have gotten stronger over the years.

Nintendo doesn't have a Wiimote type craze to disrupt this console cycle either, and Sony isn't anchored to a $599.99 price point this time around either. Stripped of casuals, it looks like Nintendo is headed back to GameCube (worst case) or N64 (better case) levels. Which leaves MS.

Their launch lineup is a tad weak I think, but will be offset quickly by having so much developer support. Is there any way the PS4 doesn't win this gen worldwide? I mean sure, MS will probably give them all they can handle in the US, but globally ... looks like they have this gen on cruise control.

They don't have free online

Sony pretty much cannot lose at this point, Nintendo and MS shot themselves in the foot too badly to race.

I don't think it's much of a factor, for hardcore players who primarily game on the PS3/360, they're migrating to one of the PS4 or XB1.

I tend to agree, but I think Kinect 2 might be the wildcard ... it really is impressive tech, and I don't even like the first Kinect. I just don't know if you can make a compelling game out of air gestures once the mini-game novelty of it wears off.

Remember how many thought Vita would dominate?

Remember the start of gen 7?

Anything could happen. But most likely the PS4 will do well and even lead this gen.  But its still to early to say 100%.

Yeah pretty much. But maybe not because of people like you who switch their preorders!!! >:-/

I wouldn't be so certain. They'll have the best launch, but how people will accept it say, 6 months in, is as of yet an unknown. So if Nintendo strike hard with Mario Kart, Smash Bros. and a price cut, and other smaller titles, I could see them snatching the momentum and the generation with it.

So, I say it's probable, that the PS4 will be win, but not certain, and not by much.

After following the game business for almost 20 years now, I have to say, I almost think "winning" the console generation isn't the right term.

Generally the company that makes the least amount of mistakes with their hardware tends to win each hardware cycle. It's less about winning than it is about not making mistakes.

People just want an affordable piece of hardware that gives them access to the widest variety of games. It's not for hardware makers to dicate or lecture the consumer on what types of games they should be playing.

Vita didn't have over 1 million pre-orders.

To put this in perspective, the Wii was released on November 19th, 2006 and went on to sell about 500-600k units for the rest of the month. That's how big 1 million pre-orders is, and the PS4 isn't coming for two to three months.