Don't be so sure about Japan... PS3 slim had a long term effect that's basically raised the baseline to 18-22k weekly (way up from about 10-14k weekly pre-slim).  I wouldn't be at all surprised to see 360 settle into a new higher baseline, say 6-10k weekly, similarly up from 3-5k.

I agree with the statement of this thread for several reasons. Since last August PS3 saw stronger sales then the 360 primarily due to a PS3 Slim. The worldwide sales difference dropped from about 8.5 to 4.9 million since the PS3 Slim launched up until the point the 360S launched. However before that the 360's lead was growing, and only until recently (again due to the PS3 Slim), has the PS3 to 360 difference only ever been slightly lower then what it was when the 360 launched.

If PS3 were ever going to overtake the 360 it would have happened within the first couple years, but it didn't and a lot of people (especially on thiswebsite) have let that get to their heads.

The fact of the matter is PS3's recent burst of popularity was due to the PS3 Slim, not a price cut, not the games, not the fact that blu-ray is more popular. Now that the 360S has launched in Americas, and is a showing a stronger sales rate then the PS3 Slim had, the 360 will not only regain it's initial sales lead, but it will re-establish it's peak sales lead of 8.5 million, and will re-take the European and Other reagions.

Not only is the 360S showing slightly more popularity then the PS3 Slim, it came without a price cut. When the PS3 Slim came out, it came with a price cut, and the 360 followed with a price cut. The 360S is outperforming the PS3 Slim sales wise in North America without the handicap the PS3 Slim had. Not only that when the PS3 Slim was released 360 sales saw a slight booast in sales, but when the 360S was released, PS3 sales actually dropped slightly, and this thing has yet to be released in Europe!

PS3 is a great system, but so is the 360, and Microsoft really shows why they are such a powerful organization. Their market strategy was just amazing, they outsold the best selling brand of consoles for 10 years prior. Mind you Nintendo is kicking ass now, I am only comparing the HD consoles.

I predict that Microsoft will expand their lead to at least the 8.5 million difference they had prior to the PS3 Slim, most likely 10 million. I predict that the 360 will re-establish the pre-PS3 Slim 1.75 million difference in it's favor. However in the last few remaining years of this generation of gaming, I think the European region will see roughly balances sales between the 360 and PS3.

So I beleive that the 360 will outsell the PS3 until the next set of holidays. Not only that, but the Year end total console sales will be in favour of Microsoft for 2010 and 2011. However, I think by Fall 2011 PS3 will see roughly the same sales volume as 360, and most likely will experience stronger sales in 2012. By 2012 or 2013 I beleive all three compeditors will release new consoles, and 360 sales will severely drop, while PS3 sales will slowly dwindle (similar to how the PS2 is still selling units, but the PS3 won't do as well as PS2).

So in all honesty I do beleive PS3 sales will start to catch up in the long run. To the point where the PS3-360 sales difference will be smaller then the initial boost 360 experienced due to it's extra year on the market. However I really doubt that the PS3 will EVER outsell the 360. It's very rare in buisness for a compeditor that has had a weaker sales bracket for 3-4 years to outsell it's compeditor in total sales over the lifetime of the product. That means that since PS3 sold weaker then the 360 until the PS3 Slim, and only outsold the 360 due to the PS3 Slim, it's unlikely to ever outsell the 360. Even if it experiences stronger sales in a year or two, it's just too late to recover. The war is over, it's just a matter of time until the news spreads, and the pockets of soldiers are cleared.

P.S. Kinect, and Halo are very much likely to push more console sales then Move, and Gran Turismo. GT versus Halo is arguable since GT5 is the first full GT installment on the PS3, but just as many users missed Modern Warfare 1 and bought MW 2 in larger quantities, Halo Reach will outsell and attract more gamers then Halo 3. However the PS Move lacks supporting software, and (like Nintendo always promotes) it is less innovative then Kinect. People want something new, and PS Move is not that differenct from the Wii. Like I said it is also lacking software, Kinect launches with 15 titles, most exclusive, and some looking pretty damn awesome. Move has Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition, a SOCOM title (which could be an epic fail like the last one), and some sports game that no one can remember the name witout looking it up.

P.P.S. Spring sales also depend on exclusives, and Gears of War is not only a better rated game then Killzone, but it also sells about 2.5 times as many units. It will push 360's popularity just like God of War pushed the PS3 this spring.

Basically Microsoft is copying what Sony did that pushed Sony sales above 360 sales. Not only that, but it is taking advantage of a poor PS3 fall lineup (2009 and 2008 were far better for PS3), and blocking every big PS3 release. Kinect over Move, Halo over Gran Turismo, Gears of War over Killzone etc... If anything messes up for Microsoft, they can always do a price cut, and since a 360 is cheaper to produce then a PS3, they can do it more readily then Sony.

By number of employees...

Sony: 167,000

Microsoft: 93,000

Nintendo 4,000 (lol)

Sony will wait to the last possible minute to make that price drop. mainly to see what MS price drop will be.

I think the best way to look at it is if we go back prior to E3. PS3 sales were up year on year and 360 was down in a lot of areas. It was only really up in US/UK. To claw back the 1.5m they have or so Sony had to do a lot, they had a big price cut, a new model and released a lot of good games. In that period MS did almost nothing. No price cut for 2 years, in fact in some places it went up in price!, no new model, little in the way of exclusive games etc etc.

Point being a lot of Sony's momentum was down to there being no resistance from MS side. They were making profit, had a big lead over PS3, they had no reason to instantly follow Sony and reduce price. They waited their time. They let Sony play their cards because Sony needed to. Without Sony having the price cut and new model sales would of been bad and even the strongest of PS3 fanboy must admit that is true. Sony had to react to what was happening as let's be honest here they were taking a hammering.

Roll on a year and MS have started to play their cards. Everyone knew it was coming, it was no secret. There was no way MS was going to go into a 3rd year without having dropped the price officially for the 360. And as expected they drop the price and bring out a new model at e3. The realists were saying it for a long long time

In my opinion this is not MS's main card left to play. This is just a water tester. The real card they will play will be this new cheaper arcade slim. If it is the £99 rumoured then that will in my opinion be the last card MS do this gen. The console will sell by the truck load. The 1.5m Sony made back against the 360 could be wiped out pretty quickly.

As we all know sales are effected by momentum. Sony had it for almost a year. They did a lot to get it and they deserved the sales from it. They put out some of the best games of any gen on any console in the past 12 months.

The tide of momentum has now shifted back to 360. The new model is more expensive then the previous 360 but it is selling well. The real price cut will happen in a couple of months.

MS will have the new slim released in the rest of the world in the next month. The new cheaper arcade version. Kinect, But on top of that it has a couple of real AAA games in Halo and Gears. The next year is set-up to be very good sales wise for 360.

So the question becomes "what cards have sony got left to play to re-gain the momentum?".

A price cut? Sony announced recently they started to make profit on each PS3 sold. Obviously not much but profit is profit. Would they price cut and go back to making a loss? With the console now almost into it's 5th year i think they now have no choice but to concentrate on making profit. The company has not done so well over recent years making big losses. There will be no big price cut coming. A small £25 cut at best.

A new model? Not even a year since the last one, not going to happen.

Move. Buying a console and move will cost you in the region of £400. Not many people will be paying that to play move. Move will dominantly be people who already have a PS3.

GT5. This is the last true AAA game Sony has left. The game is massive and will sell millions and millions. But soon as November hits, the game is gone. Beyond that period the titles look very weak in comparison to what MS will put out. Gears 3 and Fable 3 will sell more then Killzone 3,Resistance 3 and Twisted Metal combined.

So personally i think MS have played this gen perfectly in terms of timing. This holiday will be the last big holiday for 360. Beyond this holiday they will have played their cards. There will be nothing left for them to do but start thinking about the next gen. By the end of this holiday i expect the 360-PS3 gap to have again reached 6m. At that point it becomes nearly impossible for PS3 unless they can price cut the PS3. I don't think we will see a proper price cut to that until this time next year.

As Source said a few months ago, the peak of this gen has now passed.

I agree with the statement of this thread for several reasons. Since last August PS3 saw stronger sales then the 360 primarily due to a PS3 Slim. The worldwide sales difference dropped from about 8.5 to 4.9 million since the PS3 Slim launched up until the point the 360S launched. However before that the 360's lead was growing, and only until recently (again due to the PS3 Slim), has the PS3 to 360 difference only ever been slightly lower then what it was when the 360 launched.

If PS3 were ever going to overtake the 360 it would have happened within the first couple years, but it didn't and a lot of people (especially on thiswebsite) have let that get to their heads.

The fact of the matter is PS3's recent burst of popularity was due to the PS3 Slim, not a price cut, not the games, not the fact that blu-ray is more popular. Now that the 360S has launched in Americas, and is a showing a stronger sales rate then the PS3 Slim had, the 360 will not only regain it's initial sales lead, but it will re-establish it's peak sales lead of 8.5 million, and will re-take the European and Other reagions.

Not only is the 360S showing slightly more popularity then the PS3 Slim, it came without a price cut. When the PS3 Slim came out, it came with a price cut, and the 360 followed with a price cut. The 360S is outperforming the PS3 Slim sales wise in North America without the handicap the PS3 Slim had. Not only that when the PS3 Slim was released 360 sales saw a slight booast in sales, but when the 360S was released, PS3 sales actually dropped slightly, and this thing has yet to be released in Europe!

PS3 is a great system, but so is the 360, and Microsoft really shows why they are such a powerful organization. Their market strategy was just amazing, they outsold the best selling brand of consoles for 10 years prior. Mind you Nintendo is kicking ass now, I am only comparing the HD consoles.

I predict that Microsoft will expand their lead to at least the 8.5 million difference they had prior to the PS3 Slim, most likely 10 million. I predict that the 360 will re-establish the pre-PS3 Slim 1.75 million difference in it's favor. However in the last few remaining years of this generation of gaming, I think the European region will see roughly balances sales between the 360 and PS3.

So I beleive that the 360 will outsell the PS3 until the next set of holidays. Not only that, but the Year end total console sales will be in favour of Microsoft for 2010 and 2011. However, I think by Fall 2011 PS3 will see roughly the same sales volume as 360, and most likely will experience stronger sales in 2012. By 2012 or 2013 I beleive all three compeditors will release new consoles, and 360 sales will severely drop, while PS3 sales will slowly dwindle (similar to how the PS2 is still selling units, but the PS3 won't do as well as PS2).

So in all honesty I do beleive PS3 sales will start to catch up in the long run. To the point where the PS3-360 sales difference will be smaller then the initial boost 360 experienced due to it's extra year on the market. However I really doubt that the PS3 will EVER outsell the 360. It's very rare in buisness for a compeditor that has had a weaker sales bracket for 3-4 years to outsell it's compeditor in total sales over the lifetime of the product. That means that since PS3 sold weaker then the 360 until the PS3 Slim, and only outsold the 360 due to the PS3 Slim, it's unlikely to ever outsell the 360. Even if it experiences stronger sales in a year or two, it's just too late to recover. The war is over, it's just a matter of time until the news spreads, and the pockets of soldiers are cleared.

P.S. Kinect, and Halo are very much likely to push more console sales then Move, and Gran Turismo. GT versus Halo is arguable since GT5 is the first full GT installment on the PS3, but just as many users missed Modern Warfare 1 and bought MW 2 in larger quantities, Halo Reach will outsell and attract more gamers then Halo 3. However the PS Move lacks supporting software, and (like Nintendo always promotes) it is less innovative then Kinect. People want something new, and PS Move is not that differenct from the Wii. Like I said it is also lacking software, Kinect launches with 15 titles, most exclusive, and some looking pretty damn awesome. Move has Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition, a SOCOM title (which could be an epic fail like the last one), and some sports game that no one can remember the name witout looking it up.

P.P.S. Spring sales also depend on exclusives, and Gears of War is not only a better rated game then Killzone, but it also sells about 2.5 times as many units. It will push 360's popularity just like God of War pushed the PS3 this spring.

Basically Microsoft is copying what Sony did that pushed Sony sales above 360 sales. Not only that, but it is taking advantage of a poor PS3 fall lineup (2009 and 2008 were far better for PS3), and blocking every big PS3 release. Kinect over Move, Halo over Gran Turismo, Gears of War over Killzone etc... If anything messes up for Microsoft, they can always do a price cut, and since a 360 is cheaper to produce then a PS3, they can do it more readily then Sony.

ait.  So you're saying that the PS3 boost had nothing to do with the price-cut and the games.  You think if the Slim came out and was still $400, it would still have sold over 582K in the first week of release?  That's just nuts.  And noone is going to get a system, regardless of price and design, if there are no good games to play on it.  Past gens have showed us this.

How can you say that the 360 Slim is more popular than the PS3 Slim?  The 360 Slim debuted with 17K in Japan, the PS3 Slim with 152K.  In EMEAA, the PS3 Slim debuted at 265K.  Do you really think that the new 360 is going to match that?  Or are we going with the America=World thing?

You're putting a lot of faith in this new Slim.  I mean you honestly think the 360 will outsell the PS3 on the week of GT5's release?  Not if EU has anything to say about it.  Some have said they think the 360 will outsell the PS3 til the end of this year, but you honestly think it will outsell it til the end of next year?  I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed within a month's time when sales stabilize.

Do people expect GT5 to move 3 million consoles? I doubt there are three million people waiting to get a PS3 for one game. I know last gens sales of the GT franchise were huge, but is it the same this gen?

GT5p sold 3.78 million copies (bundled), which is definitely good, but not super awesome huge mega - like.
GT on PSP sold 1.3 million, which is not that good.

Racing games are not that popular anymore. Shooter seem to be the best selling genre on th HD consoles. Halo, Modern Warfare, Gears etc.

GT5 will be bundled as well, but I have my doubts it will move hardware as good as people think.

As a racing fan, I already had the chance to play dozens of Racing games. There are 5 Need for Speed games, 2 Forzas, 2 Test Drive Unlimiteds, 1 Race PRO, 2 PGRs, 2 DiRTs, GRID, Ridge Racer, 3 Moto GPs, 2 Nascar, 2 Burnouts, Blur, SpiltSecond and PURE - but that is not all.  I think most of the racing fans could have picked a console already.

I really think there are no huge system sellers left for this gen. Look, the 360 will be in its 6th year (!!!) soon. The PS3 will be in its 5th year soon. Both have HUGE libraries. One game won't make people to buy a system at this age.