I feel like Sony was already regaining confidence near the mid way mark of the PS3's life. They managed to turn around a near disaster and deliver some solid titles. First few years of PS3 were terrible though.

Duplicate 

Quality. They have learned from the PS3 mistakes and did everything better with the PS4. Of course amazing marketing and games contributed to the great success of the Playstation brand.

They were always the king of the industry since they joined this business, PS3 time was just a little slip from Sony (and PS3 was still very successful in the end) and now with the PS4 they are back at the top where they belong!

E3 2013

"PS4 wont impose any new restrictions on the use of used games. We believe in the model that people embrace today. When a gamer buys a PS4 disc, they have the rights to use that copy of the game. They can trade in the copy, sell it to a friend or keep it forever. No online connection required, no authentication required."

"$399"

When you combine the two it seems ordinary. It seems like what you'd expect from your videogame console. After watching what Microsoft tried to pull with the Xbox One reveal and E3 show, it made the PS4 into the gaming communities darling. Don't underestimate what word of mouth is capable of in the age of social media. When hundreds of thousands of people are simultaneously pushing your platform while trashing the other, that shit will make waves in the industry. They had pro-consumer policies behind a more powerful console for a cheaper pricepoint, all that to go along with the goodwill built up through the PS3's later years and Sony's own first party support.

Perfect reveal, perfect build up, perfect launch. The rest is history.

Best hardware design.... they learnt from their mistake with the PS3.
Best price/performance of consoles on the market = precieved value.

Good brand, marketing, and investing in 1st party (which are typically differnt than most 3rd party type AAA games).

That's your oppinion. Nobody forced anything to anyone. If you feel forced to buy something when a compay put it out there, I would look at myself first :)
Microsoft mistake was the price, for the general consumer, it is all that matters.

Why did you ban me for a racy avatar yet, you sig is "So Life Like?"

EDIT: Never mind.  That wasn't you.  It was someone else.

- Moderated, Carl

You should include "home" in the headline..
If you only look at consoles it mean both home and portable consoles.. And then the claim is wrong..

Nintendo sold more consoles in all gens since 2005..

Wii/ds beat PS3/PSP
WiiU/3DS beat PS4/Vita

And now Nintendo has allready startet next gen (the console that will compete with ps..some) and will probelly also win the next..

If you only look at home consoles.. it's a bit to 2016.. now we have hybryds.. and so fare I know.. Nintendo had sold more Switch than PS4 since day one..

Well, let's hear your opinion.  What reasonable price should Microsoft have originally sold the Xbox One at launch with the bundled Kinect and less powerful processing hardware than the PS4?

Combination of a few things. Ironically the PS2 was actually the least powerful console of its generation, but it redefined the industry with DVDs. Sony was one of the inventors of DVDs so it was also the cheapest DVD player. Same thing occurred with the PS3. Sony was one of the inventors of Blu-Ray. So entertainment wise, Sony with the Playstation was at the forefront of the industry. Combination of that along with the best catalog of exclusives, as well as rivals just shooting themselves in the foot.