Depends on what its not returning to. If you mean return to the market dominance of the PS2 I’d pretty much say that is out of the question short of a total Wii flame out or divine intervention. As for a lesser return to simply #1, I’d give the PS3 at least through this Christmas (or Toy Day or whatever it’s called in Japan). Sony’s one hope is that the PS3’s price is limiting a greater than normal share of sales to the holidays. The end of this year will also give us an idea of how well, or not, the Wii is taking hold of the various gaming demographics. At any rate, 14 months of high Wii and low PS3 sales will likely give the Wii an insurmountable lead even should the PS3 hit a late stride. If you mean no return as in dying off I don’t think the PS3 would do that though I could see it happening. 20,000 units a week is enough to maintain a GameCube level existence which while not profitable for Sony is still manageable. The danger is if the terrible sales cause ever more 3rd party games to jump ship causing gamers to have ever fewer reasons to buy a $600 video game system. I can’t imagine DQ10 not being on the DS or Wii (both? That’d be interesting) at this point but it is a long way off. All of that may bring into question the viability of a PS4 but that’s too far off to think about.

Descent/popular games double hardware sales, great games will do much more. Ps3 price cut of $100 would sky rocket sales, GT5 prologue would be nice this year. wii fad will die, gamers wont tolerate its inferiority in late 2008, mid 2008 market will quickly shift to the PS3 with wii having a GC type life.

its a fad. what reason is there to get a wii ? wii sports LOL (fad game).... Zelda you can get nearly the same thing on GC. so is it the 3rd party games.. pffff.... then what... Do gamers want FF on wii that looks like a PS2 game... or do they want massive worlds huge graphical improvements great physics on the PS3 ? imagine a FF mmo on PS3 and then one on Wii.... who the hell will want to play the MUCH inferior game ? say what you want but RPGs are driven by graphics, no one wants a ugly rpg.

You forgot to mention nintendo's 1st party games hus... but thats cool they dont sell well in japan anyways

Sony won't die if they "fail" in Japan - but if the same spreads to all three territories, then there could be trouble. According to Sony, they are happy with the current PSP performance - so maybe they will be happy with the same level of competitiveness from the PS3 v Wii. It also depends on other parts of the company, BluRay, etc. Even if the PS3 does (relatively) flunk, it won't impact Sony that much if BluRay becomes dominant they reap the rewards from that. PS - there is ZERO chance that DQ X will come out for the PS3 - and -1000% cahnce it comes out for the PS3 exclusively. At this stage, I'd say 85% chance for the DS (depends on the DQ DS sales - Joker is doing pretty well...), and 15% for the Wii. I wouldn't even try to hope for it - its about as likely as an exclusive release for the 360 ;) (what they may do it various spin off games instead..)