It will be a more interesting generation maybe; it's not as though any of the big three are going to hit it out of the park this time. Nintendo is already out of the equation as a market leader as the 8th gen will be more GameCube than anything else.
The majority marketshare will probably be closer to an even split between the XB1 and PS4 with the PS4 initially being better positioned to take a small lead. We'll see how that develops as software drives hardware sales rather than initial new product hype and consumer enthusiasm.
Number of hardware units sold will probably mean less during the 8th gen, which may well be the last as focus continues to shift to services and software. Naturally, there has to be some sort of box on which to connect to said services and software (contrary to a PC gamer popular belief, everyone will not be building their own box) but the focus is still shifting away from the box itself. I'm thinking something like the PS Vita TV micro console may well be the "face" of the PS5.
That said, it would be no surprise to me at all if Sony sells more PS4s in every region, including NA, than the XB1. Price-wise, the XB1 is hobbled by Kinect 2. MS won't increase losses by giving it away for free, and releasing an non Kinect 2 SKU doesn't really seem like it's on the table for their overall platform plan currently. MS drops the price of their current SKU to $399 at a larger loss, SCE can just as easily drop the price of theirs to $299. That said, I seriously doubt there will be a race to see who can lose the most money on hardware in the interest of "winning" more sales. Hardware pricing will most likely be dictated by streamlining in manufacturing processes, reduction in parts and silicon die sizes, etc. and the prerequisite external hardware refreshes.
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