12 months to 18 months  timewe will have a better picture. Let's wait to see what  2009 and 2010 have to offer before we draw to any conclusions.

Yup that's it.

Console war is over.

You are correct. MS and Sony both "lost" this generation before it even started.

Oh this will be a sad christmas for XBox fans. The PS3 sold more christmas 2007 than the 360.

with Uncharted and Ratchet against Bioshock, Mass Effects and Halo3. If they couldn't win this they do not have the slightest chance this year.

The Wii still outsells both of them combined so yea fighting for second haha sad fanboys.

The console war according to X360 and PS3 sales executives is between Sony and MS. they do not count the Wii as a current generation console they say well it uses last gen technology it is not competing with us.

Many PS3 and X360 fan boys use the same excuses and say the Wii is not competing  in the  HD console war.

Hmm, you are a fan of overly simplistic reasoning?

First of all price is not simply a matter of looking at the price on the box, but also about the perceived value of what you are getting. For instance the reason some buy and Xbox360 instead of a Wii, even if the Wii is cheaper is because they perceive getting more value with the Xbox360 box compared to the Wii.

Sony's challenge and aim for this generation is to inform potential customers about the added value of the PS3 compared to the xbox360 and to a lesser degree the Wii. With the average consumer (which people on a site like this is not representative :) that value need to be presented in quite broad strokes.

While technophiles like ourselves would consider and argue the added value of things like the PS3 having support for open standard accessories for things like the bluetooth headsets, standard 2.5" Harddrives and standard mouse/keyboard, the normal consumer would probably not even consider such things, at least not without strong guidance from the retailer. So for the normal consumer the major differentiation between an Xbox360 and a PS3 in terms of features can probably be reduced to two items. Exclusive games and Blu-ray support. Strong interest in platform exclusives like Halo or Metal Gear Solid can for sure play a role in the choice of console despite price difference between the hardware. Sony do hold an edge here in the form of having a lot of PS2 titles which they control as first party exclusives which has been established in the marketplace. As the number of PS3's sold has increased along with its market share over the last year it is clear that Microsoft's strategy on relying on 3rd parties to supply them with exclusives are getting tougher (aka more expensive), which is why it seems that things have gone from getting exclusives to just paying to get a multiplatform release (Final Fantasy) or getting timed exclusive periods (Rock Band in Europe). Sony's strategy of not paying 3rd parties, but instead have a large number of 1st party games seems the wiser in the long term here.

Sony's major selling point for being able to claim a premium price on its console though is the blu-ray support. The challenge is of course getting the consumer to value the Blu-ray at something higher than the Xbox360 and PS3 price difference. Sony took a big step forward in that regard when the HD war was won in favour of Blu-ray, after which we saw a clear weekly increase in PS3 sales in especially the US.
This perceived extra value offered by the PS3 will be strongly linked to the popularity of Blu-Ray as such, and if current projections hold Blu-Ray should become the biggest retail video formats somewhere around 2010/2011. So while the Blu-ray support probably held a very low subjective value to consumers at the launch of the PS3, as Blu-Ray's market and mindshare grown over the next years its subjective value will continue to increase and thus negate a need for Sony to compete with Microsoft purely on price.

That said price do play a role, we see that in the form of the Wii sales (which is partly related to price, but of course also strongly related to the Wii and to a lesser extend the DS being 'trendy and cool' currently, similiar to iPod's for instance.). So while there is no doubt in my mind that the price cuts will influence Xbox306 sales positively, the long term effects on overall marketshare might be a lot smaller than you expect. And while Sony currently focus on profitability I think everyone would be very surprised if there are no PS3 price cuts at all this year, but my guess would be that you see such a thing happening closer to Christmas. It makes little sense for Sony to 'match' Microsofts pricecuts on the day, instead its better to wait a bit to be able to better measure the price elasticity in the marketplace for the Xbox360 and also by doing your 'own' pricecut independently later be better able to measure your own price elasticity better. Such information, which lets you better understand how the market reacts to the pricing of both your own product and your competitors is critical for being able to plan a good pricing strategy.

Btw, your list of comparing games is rather silly. You are not going to convince anyone that the Xbox360 has a big lead in games by pointing out that it has exclusive games like Poker Smash, ChessMaster and Gin Rummy coming out for the platform. And for a causal consumer, a known brand like Buzz! holds a higher subjective value than an relatively unknown entity like Scene It (which to top it of got rather bad reviews). A games comparison list is not a numbers game, its about evaluating and weighing the overall offerings against each other.

Blah blah blah... keep going. The current console war is between M$ and Sony... the Wii doesn't compete with these two... it's both older technology and rakes most of its profits from the casual market, unlike the PS360.

I think Final Fantasy XIII Versus could be the answer this fall for sony, Gamestop and Bestbuy have it penned in for December 2008 release, also anybody thinking sony are finished should think again, PLAYTV is released in september that should make more reason to buy a ps3, also looking at the recent screenshots of ps3's exclusive Heavy Rain are mind blowing THIS IS LIVING!!!

I agree with this. VGC consists of over 60% pro Nintendo fans. 70% of the members of this site I believe own a Wii. So we have to say the Wii is competing with PS3 and X360 so no one complains.