As the loser console for this generation has PS3 achieved sales curiosities that put its loser sales into some kind of historical context.

Interestingly in 2010 PS3 managed to do this:

 - Sell more than the combined life time sales of Xbox and Gamecube (~46 million)

- Sell more than the combined lifetime sales of all of Sega's home consoles (~45 million)

in 2011 PS3 will:

-sell 50 million consoles ltd

- sell more than the combined lifetime sales of all Sega consoles (~55 million)

- sell more than the combined lifetime sales of Ninendo's previous 2 home consoles (~53 million)

- probably sell more than any other individual Nintendo home console in history other than the Wii (~62 million), if not then it will definitely do it some time in 2012.

That's the "loser " console for the 7th generation.

As someone's sig says, 3rd place has never looked so good.

In 2012 it's possible that PS3 will no longer be the "loser" console (I doubt it though).

We all know the PS3 is no looser at all. It could have been bigger, specially after PS2, but that doesn't change the fact that is a hell of a console.

By the way, it is really impressive how the gaming market has grown. Seriously now, do we really have to worry about the future of gaming as every now and then someone says?

i don't worry about the future of gaming, i worry about the future of certain gaming genres

I don't think there was any loser this generation. Although it'd be delusional to deny Wii's big lead over the HD consoles but after the killer performance of PS2 over it's rival consoles, Wii's victory over PS3 and Xbox360 isn't as impressive as the last console generation's winner. Although DS ofcourse shits on all of them this gen.

There are several ways of losing or winning, and you can do both at the same time. It has a great catalog, but in an economical way, Sony and most third parties have lost tons of money because of it.

What genres then?

The turn-based RPG and the good old point and click adventure.

You should read that article, it's on Gamrfeed:

http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/84180/top-ten-dying-game-genres/

I don't agree with that article at all. My god... stating that music genre is dying, specially on this generation, is plain crazy, regardless of the fact that Activision decided not to make a two or three music games per year anymore (or at least for a while).

Oversaturation of the market or the fact that some genres just naturally provide less games a year than others (because the demand is smaller) or that genres that seemed to be mass apealing are now just niche doesn't mean that this genres are dying, and I'm not afraid it will happen either.

2d platformers, point and click adventures, on rail shooters, strategy rpg games...

We had are having lots of games of this genres this generation, many of them of great quality, and you could say that some genres were provided with more games than what gamers are willing to buy.

There are trends, there are ups and downs, of course, but I don't see any of those genres dying. At all.

Err, not a loser? I'm sure that that's too harsh a term since it definitely pleases its fans, but considering how much money it lost, considering how pathetic its performance is for the once mighty PlayStation brand, well...

Also, just for the sake of it, Sega home console sales are very disputed. At the higher end, they could near 70m (39m MD, 17m Saturn, 10m DC, add-ons...), which PS3 will take a while to reach. Add the handhelds and PS3 may not outdo everything Sega after all.