I was reading the thread asking if xbox can make a comeback in America this gen. And it got me thinking.  

We all know how badly ps3 was struggling to turn things around last gen.  It had far bigger problems to deal with then xbox does now.  Mainly a really high price point. 

But ps3 did turn things around and by the end of the gen was back on top of Xbox.  At this point of the gen (year 4) how was ps3 doing?  Had the comeback started?  

We all know the resurgence of the ps3 set the stage for the ps4 to get truly back on top. So when the next gen starts will xbox likewise regain marketshare or does the ps4 have enough momentum to give the ps5 an even bigger slice of the pie?  

On a different topic I'd like to ask,  to save me making another thread.  When Sony launch the ps5 will they provide it with a lot more stock then the ps4 did at launch?  They were unable to produce sufficient ps4's but will they go bigger with ps5 production from the start?

The only years where the 360 outsold the PS3 were 2006 and 2008 (by VGC's numbers), otherwise they were neck-in-neck or the PS3 was ahead. The main problem for the PS3 is the 360 had a year head start that allowed the 360 to have a 6 million lead by the time the PS3 launched.

Meanwhile the Xbox One has yet to come close to even matching the PS4's yearly sales so overall the XBO does not compare with the PS3.

This thread reminded me that I don't think PS3 really got to be on top of the Xbox 360. Looking at the last time Sony and MS provided any number for their total hardware sales for both, and then adding the VGChartz estimates from that point onwards in time, 360 still comes ahead in total sales. That's how I made the calculations anyway, unsure if you're supposed to follow any other specific formula because I'm not a numbers guy.

To answer the question, loyalty from mainstream console buyers seems muddy at best, so there's always a chance that the goodwill carried from before and a new generation could make one of the companies sell better than the other. It all depends on consumer expectations and satisfying demand and all that.

Are there any official number showing just how much Sony lost in developing the Cell hardware no one could program for, and the amount of losses they were taking on all their early units, and then having to quickly bring out revised models that people could afford?

I feel you'll need to factor all that in first to get an accurate idea on how Sony were doing at that point. Certainly gotta admire the way they recovered, although to say they passed 360 is a bit folly.

The last shipment stated by Sony was 80 million in November 2013 while MS posted a 84 million shipment in June 2014.  The IDC suggests that the PS3 was ahead of the 360 (77 to 76) as of December 2012, how they got that data is not clear. No one really knows for sure who ended up on top but the general consensus seems to be that the PS3 managed to eventually edge out the 360.

The reason ps4 is ahead of xbox is because of that infamous e3 2013 and all that other things microsoft tried to throw at us(24 hours online,kinect,you know all).It has nothing to do with the ps3 setting stage for ps4.And the xbone situation now is way worse than the early ps3 years.I don't think they can do anything now,aside of feed their own fans with new hardware.

Other than it's first year, the ps3 consistently outsold the 360 worldwide, and as the gen wore on the amount by which it did grew, it was only behind in worldwide numbers bevause it was a year (up to 1.5 in some regions) behind the 360, which by then had developed a strong foothold in the US.

The xbox one would have to outsell the ps4 by twice the PS4's weekly sales for the rest of the gen to stand a chance of breaking even, let alone pulling ahead, and we all know that isnt going to happen, because xbox doesn't have and never will have japan.

Xbone not only has more problems than PS3 did, but thanks to the smaller worldwide fan base, those problems run deeper than they did for PS3.

Most people online seem to forget that the PS3 was outselling 360 off the bat, the 360 just had a head start. Even the biggest problem for PS3, price, was not nearly as bad as it was for Xbone. PS3 was more powerful, and had a BR drive, and free online play. So a larger initial investment was not as much a deal breaker. Compare that to Xbone, it was more expensive, and had weaker hardware. That's not even getting into the toxic Xbone reveal.

The reason PS4 is ahead of Xbox (which I prefer over PlayStation, actually) is because PlayStation was always the bigger brand. From PS2 days to now, Sony just has legions and legions of fans. To me, for the first several years, the Xbox 360 experience was infinitely better than what PlayStation was offering but, for whatever reason, they just couldn't garner the loyalty and good will that Sony has.

"The first five million are going to buy it (PS3), whatever it is, even [if] it didn't have games." (David Reeves on the PS3 launch, 2007)

The numbers of IDC must be wrong because MS reported 76m of Xbox 360s being sold by February 2013. It's impossible that MS had reached that milestone by December 2012, and I'm fairly sure Sony's numbers are off too, as there's sources of them selling 70m PS3s by November 2012.

This is where numbers get extremely weird, as apparently MS's first fiscal quarter of 2013 establishes a 70m sales figure as well. But somehow, they also made the 76m milestone in February of 2013. Outside that 70m PS3 source I provided, VGsales only indicates that by the end of 2012's fiscal year PS3 has sold approximatedly 63.9m and that Sony stopped giving shipment figures afterward. This is probably the part where I get a bit lost, as there's two different numbers being provided.

Wikipedia states that Xbox 360 is still on top of PS3, the former having 84m sales reported, and the later, 83.6m (approximatedly). The only thing Wikipedia adds to this are the following note/statements:

PlayStation 3: A Sony press release reported 80 million sold as of November 2, 2013.^[23] 3.4 million were shipped in 2014 and 0.4 million in the first quarter of 2015. (Doesn't specify where did they take these numbers)

By October, 2013, Xbox 360 reached the http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-360-sales-reach-80-million-units/1100-6415644/">80m figure milestone, a month prior of Sony's milestone. While looking at this now, it certainly looks more plausible that PS3 eventually edged 360, but it also means that by June 2014, which is when Xbox 360 reached the 84m milestone, PS3 was still in third place. I think last time I made calculations going from both the 80m and 84m figures onwards using VGC data and 360 still came on top.