I don't think anyone has ever disputed the point you're trying to convey...but what you're selectively choosing to ignore is the said 'pwnage' of the last few months. The PS3 was consistently selling more for the first 9 months of the year and then in a heartbeat (a 3 month heartbeat) those 9 month gains were wiped away. What word would you use to describe last week's four hundred-thousand (2:1) difference? Besides as I've already said, in 4 weeks time your whole argument will be false.

In 4 weeks time when the whole 2008 sales data is in XBox 360 will have beaten the PS3 for the whole year by over 1 million console sales.

First  8 months of the year PS3 had outsold XBox 360 by 2 million. 3 months later and the XBox 360 has clawed back that 2 million, due to the latest XBox 360 price cuts taking an impact.

Hardware Sales, 06th Dec 2008

	Japan	America	Others	Total
	10,100	312,929	322,720	645,749
	28,432	145,182	176,335	349,949

i said at this point in time, meaning yearly. i'm aware of the three month spurt, but the point i'm saying here is that when viewed from a yearly perspective, they're selling the same.

Fair enough, but as others said that won't be the case if you look at it by the end of the year. In fact, 2008's gap will be better for the 360 than 2007's.

yeah, i know. that's why i'm saying right now, at this point in time, they're still selling equally on a yearly basis.

Momentum of XBox 360 price cuts has changed everything the gap between XBox 360 and PS3 will widen over time. 10 million lead by end of 2009 in favour of XBox 360. Unless Gran Turismo 5 and FF XIII are released on PS3 and price cuts of the console, PS3 is heading for distant third place behind XBox 360 in console sales war.

XBox 360 is considerably cheaper than PS3 and the games on XBox 360 look far more impressive from a graphics perspective.  Blu-Ray is the most over rated thing on the planet and the PS3 games at best look on par with XBox 360 that does not have Blu-Ray. Both PS3 and XBox 360 are compatible with 1080p and result in no difference in terms of graphics. However the games on XBox 360 look much better than the games on PS3.

I don't see what all the arguing is about. The facts support the premise of the thread; the 360's current lead is due to its early release. Recent pwnage puts it pretty much on par with the PS3's performance over the year, but next year we might be seeing a different situation if Sony cannot respond to this shift in momentum.

But yeah, this thread makes it clear. The 360's lead isn't due to the recent surge but rather the year or so where it had no competition.

Next year we might be giving this surge a nod if Microsoft widens the gap by a significant margin, but we'd be getting ahead of ourselves to do so now.

this seems like the automated response from fanboys that we get anytime there's a sales discussion.

its like an answering machine already. give it a rest.

...er...what?

anyway, "Gears of War 2 is much better than MGS 4, UnCharted, Gran Turismo 5: prologue" is pure flamebait.

Are you just trying to make people angry?