I really don't see the PS3 as beating the 360 is even close to "set in stone" yet.
Much will depend on this Xmas - the PS3 won last Xmas "by a whisker", and that was a Europe launch Xmas PLUS a price cut. They get neither this Xmas, whereas I see the 360 having the upper hand (its still unknown as to what will happen re: price cuts/bundles at this stage).
I wouldn't be at all surprised to see MS at *least* hold the fort - if not take back some ground - primarily based on strength in the US market.
A lot will depend on how the market reacts to the 'casualisation' of the 360 - and especially in Europe (the key battleground). It doesn't help though, that MS has already made the price move (in Europe) - just to stay in touch (although with the weak US $, this isn't as a big a deal as it could have been).
The other issue is the weakness of the PS3 in Japan. Sales have boosted a "little", but its only going to take a few weeks without releases to see sales drop under the 10k level again.
Last year, on the back of some big releases sales boosted at "just" the right time to 40k-60k in Japan (start Nov), and stayed there for 2 months.
I doubt this will happen (as much) this year, unless Sony are really holding some big releases back. And MS will be unleasing the Japan RPG love stronger than ever before.
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Although the weekly gap has increased, the overall trends have not - it was primarily MGS that gave the PS3 a good "one-off" boost, which was mirrored in the Japanese sales:
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The "average" weekly gap between the two (worldwide) over the last 3 months has been less than 40k (probably closer to 30k) per week. Even at this sales rate, its going to take almost three years to catch up.
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Its going to be a very interesting Xmas period this year (to say the least!).
Gesta Non Verba
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