No, not really. First of all, installed base has little to no effect on software sales, the Gameube hardly had a large installed base but sold a lot of titles very well (I think Resident Evil 4 sold the most on GC, more than the PS2 which had an installed base that was five times as large at the end of the gen). Also, there's the fact that they are indeed separate platforms and one can see big differences in the way 3rd parties have treated the two HD consoles as well, with most 3rd parties favoring the 360, doubly so in the first two years of the PS3's life.

Lastly, there's the fact that the Wii's installed base seems to be quite different from the HD consoles, there will never be a 20 million seller on any HD console this gen, that's for sure. Of course, one could say that this renders the argument of hardware in terms of HD vs Wii invalid as well, and I say that that's true to some extent. But, like I said, I think its the divide and the fact that the Wii seems and is so different in almost every way that spurrs these somewhat strange comparisons. As a whole, I'm not so sure that I think its fair to pair up two consoles sales against one even if the differences are that big and I do think that its a technique for many to patronize the Wii and diminish the impact of its success globally, it disarms the numbers in a sense and its probably comforting for many to see it this way however silly that may sound.

Anyway, thanks for your response, I was surprised (in a positive way)!

Apart of fanboys, I believe many people say that to state how godly Mario Kart is to the point that a single game is outselling the combined versions of "the game of generation"

That's a valid point somehow because its 1 game, outselling 2 games.

Now 2 games combined is outselling 1 single game? What's the point?

2 guys together kicking the ass of a single guy is a normal and coward situation, but one guy beating the ass of 2 guys now that's some impressive news...

PS3 + 360 console sales combined are very close to the Wii total console sales number. PS3 + 360 are both HD consoles. We might as well say HD versus Wii in regards to arguing about game  and console sales.

You're pretty much the epitome of what I'm referring to in the OP.

For what it's worth, I think the pissing contests abotu sales are pretty stupid in general, and think that lumping the two systems together is disingenuous in general.

But when Wii owners lump the HD consoles together that way, it detracts from either of them as individual consoles, doesn't it? It's basically saying that neither console is worth comparing the Wii to, so you might as well compare both of them put together. More, it takes away from the way the two HD consoles differentiate themselves from each other.

When HD owners lump them together for the sake of comparing them to the Wii, doesn't that detract from them as individual consoles in the same way?

Consoles are only lumped together for convenience in an argument. Although their userbases are on near levels this way, this does not mean the support level is the same.

It isn't like the PS3 gets only 25% of 3rd party support and the 360 only gets 25%, and only by combining them can you get 50%. On the contrary, combining them will get you something like 70% and 80%, averaged into 75% total, leaving the Wii with half the overall gaming userbase, but 1/4th of the benefits from that.

Wii owners bust out the "sales" excuse because they don't have much else to work with; you can't exactly say they are beating the PS3 or 360 with game libraries (even though that person may find the Wii one better anyways). You would figure with 70m people you would get some games. Rockstar said that was too large to ignore, but yet their biggest game provided was table tennis.....

Lumping PS3/360 games together cushions the reality slap of how much less the games are doing on their own, another defensive tactic.

We don't compare the consoles, we compare the games.

Who's "we" in this context?

You can't compare games

Well the ones he's accusing in the OP.

Let's take the example of the upcoming Prince of Persia. The game is different on all consoles except on PS3 and 360 where they are the same. So the sales should be considered differently on PS3 and 360 even though it's the same game?