And your point is?

Considering the OP's question, Nintendo will always have a 3-generation lead on Sony unless they stop making hardware altogether.

And if you think that isn't fair somehow, Nintendo is still ahead even if you ignore the hardware that Nintendo sold before Sony entered in 1994.

almost 1/2 of Sony's hardware sales come from ONE of their generations. The PS2/PSP total was like 155 million + 80 million which = 235 million. if their total hardware sales are guesstimated to be like 500 million then that comes awfully close to 1/2 of the responsibility being one killer generation.

so that sort of defeats the argument of '7 vs 4' gens. Sony made up a lot of ground in that one generation, but their hardware totals have not been much more than Nintendo in the other periods (N64 + GBC sales comparable to PS1), (Wii + DS sales >>> PS3 / late gen PSP), (PS4 / Vita surprisingly not much different than Wii U + 3DS, just inversed), etc.

the problem is that the average Sony generation so far has not been at the level of the PS2, which was the only period where Sony gained mass ground (comparatively) with Nintendo in terms of hardware sales. Not a shocker considering it was really the only period where Sony had both a handheld and a home console that were killing it across the board  

Incorrect. PSP is part of the 7th generation.

That's not a good point. Generations are volatile because every company makes them last for as long as they want. It would be better to say Nintendo had a 9 year advantage compared to Sony (1986/SNES ~ 1995/PS1). 

I wasn't making a point.

The GB is part of the 4th generation, which you are counting in your numbers.

Or have released 5 systems more than Sony.

A majority (over 70 million) of Game Boy sales occurred after the PlayStation was released, and Nintendo only needs 30 million post-PlayStation GB sales to be ahead.

But your goal with that post can't be that you just enjoy throwing out fun little useless factoids. 

I think I use the wrong word here. What I mean by "foreseeable future" is assuming both Sony and Nintendo is stick to the current path and will follow current sales trajectory. Also assuming neither of them will pull another Wii again. Anyway I'll gonna remove that from the title to prevent confusion.

Why not compare home consoles to home consoles and handhelds to handhelds.......why are people comparing these numbers anyways, its so unbalanced. Nintendo has a crap ton more hardware......majority of its sales being handhelds. Majority of Sony sales are home consoles.

Home console sale wise no one can compare to Sony.
Handheld wise no one can compare to Nintendo.....since they have had that market pretty much to themselves outside the PSP