Gamecube sold plenty at the beginnng and died off quickly, PS3 started off rather slowly and now it'll start picking up speed. If you compare consoles WW and align the launch dates PS3 is selling better than what the GameCube was selling this long after it's launch date.

How is sales vs sales irrelevant? My point, ultimately, was that you cannot assume a product selling at the same rate at a higher price has a better chance of success than the other product. Let's look at it another way:

By this point in its life the Gamecube was generating profit for Nintendo. The PS3 has done nothing but lose Sony billions so far. If you want to compare it on a level business playing field, already excepting that the Cell will probably not be some massive profit generator for Sony since they sold away a huge chunk of their future with the Cell which was one of the components Sony was hopeful it could make profitable through the PS3. Blu Ray is the last component that was supposed to be catapulted by the PS3 and it is still struggling against HD DVD as toshiba becomes more aggressive on price.

I believe I heard this one somewhere before.  You know, when everyone was saying that 2007 was going to be the year of Sony and that there were more than 20 good reasons the PS3 would be outselling the 360 and Wii by the end of 2007.  Hell, I hear that by the time March '07 comes around, the Wii will have been proven to be a fad and should be all but completely gone while Sony dominates on the sales of newly released Virtua Fighter 5 and Motorstorm.

Why do we continue to assume that the PS3 will just rocket off with amazing sales at some point in the very near future?   

"Why do we continue to assume that the PS3 will just rocket off with amazing sales at some point in the very near future?"

In the near future no, in the future yes. Sony still has none of its big games out. once they start to come out the fun will start, the price is here but the games are late for the party :(

The exact same thing could have been said about the Gamecube as we approached Q4 2002 ...

Nintendo (as a developer) has always produced some of the best (and best selling) games of every generation, but these great games didn't motivate people to rush ot and buy Nintendo's consoles. The Gamecube spent its entire life in a very affordable price range, and was always less expensive than its competition, yet people refused to buy a $99 Gamecube that came bundled with Super Smash Bros. when games like Resident Evil 4 were released.

I think a lot of people don't understand how powerful that year head start was for MS. True Playstation has never been the 1st console released in a generation but it was usually dominant enough to nullify the head start. This time it wasn't, and on top of that the competitor that came after was strong as well.

There's no way to spin these numbers positively:

NPD Total Sales 12 months after Launch
GCN: 2,120,000
PS3: 1,742,000

The PS3 isn't just tracking behind the Gamecube, it's tracking *WAY* behind the Gamecube. In the same timespan, it's sold 375k fewer units (22%) than a console that everyone aside from Nintendo fanboys pretty much considers to be a failure. And the PS3 has been selling at a massive loss just to reach these numbers! That.... is NOT a good thing!

I see the mythical "PS3 sales surge" at some indeterminate future date excuses are already being trotted out, so back to your regularly scheduled programming.

@ TheBigFatJ

The PS3 will outsell the 360 this Christmas in terms of monthly sales.

Wow, not looking good for Sony.

Well, at least I have a nice Blu Ray player out of it... it's what I primarily bought my PS3 for anyway. 

But Nintendo was making money on the Gamecube sales...

not a chance in hell that happens.