I rarely comment on threads but this one had me pretty exasperated.

Ethomaz hasn't really changed what he was trying to say - he has only changed how he has gone about saying it.  I find it hard to believe that those commenters who took him to task didn't really have a grasp of the message he was trying to convey.

That's actually the problem. What Ethomaz meant to say doesn't mean that's what he said. You can't just say that's what Ethomaz meant to say the first time and everyone just misunderstood. People were criticizing what he said, not what he meant.

not really. Everyone on the thread agrees Sony needs to do better with PS3 in UK. That's not what everyone was arguing about.

i would say almost 20,000 a month more than the PS3 on its  base of 77,000  odd isn't close at all .
also did the rest of Europe not get the PS3 2 years after the 360 .

360 has 6,538,017 after its 68 months.  If you time adjust the PS3 - i.e. give it 68 months too - then it would be at 5,288,088.

That's close enough to potentially close the gap when I say close I make it clear I'm also allowing for additional on top - i.e. the PS3 is behind the 360 in ramp up and therefore it's monthly average should go up with holidayt spikes of which the 360 has had two extra.  If they'd launched day/date and all other things had been equal I estimate the PS3 would be at about 6 million with a gap of only 500 K.

I'm not saying it's real close as in only a slight lead.  360 has a nice lead in UK even allowing for extra time on the market.  But compare this to Japan or US.  The point is people - wrongly - see the UK as being heavily slanted to the 360 when in fact it isn't.  It's more even.  Japan is heavily, heavily slanted to the PS3, US is well slanted to the 360 (remember in US PS3 released earlier than UK so the 360 gap is more impressive there too as the time lead is less).

Some people on this site read too much into the unimportant parts of posts and manage to ignore the "meat" of the post.

As for the time release UK and Europe got the PS3 around 16 months after the launch of the 360, however it's important to note that as the 360 released early December 2005 in Euorpe it's had two holiday spikes extra and as a result has had larger holiday spikes more at the peak of its sales than the PS3.  You have to imagine a curve rising then falling when the console hits its peak.  The 360 has hit or is about to hit the peak in the UK due to time on the market.  The PS3 I believe is still rising slightly as it trails the 360 with time on the market and therefore it still has a few more spikes to accumulate than the 360.

I rekon the 360 will finish ahead of the PS3 in UK but it'll end up more as a 55/45 spilt which is fairly close in my view.  Japan will finish hugely in PS3 favour percentage split wise of the HD consoles and US will finish more in 360 favour.

Right now with the current actual numbers 360 has approx 61% of UK HD console sales to PS3 with 39 % and with the price cut I expect that to shift more to 60/40 soon (unless MS pulls of a great holidays, which is possible but would require some seriously crazt priced bundles and the likes to counter the PS3 price cut).

PS3 launched March 2007 in UK I believe with 360 launching December 2005.  So roughly speaking PS3 has had 53 months on the market and 360 has had 68 months which means that average montly sales for each has been 77,766 a month for the PS3 and 96,417 for the 360.  So demand for the PS3 really isn't that much behind 360.

Now, that's a flat average, and of course a lot of sales occur for Christmas, so of course the fact that 360 has had two extra holiday spikes means that it has an extra weight of advantage.  Personally I'd say the evidence is that the 360 doesn't dominate the UK market over the PS3 and that the PS3 still sells pretty well in a crowded market.

To me the 360's lead is simply a function of two additional peak spikes plus additional time in the market and a lower price rather than some huge preference, and that's what the numbers strongly indicate.

The UK is actually close to evenly split across the HD consoles with the Wii being the closest to more dominant.  The US, Japan and other European countries are where the PS3/360 see much more divisive gaps.

I always find the assumptions about the UK funny, rather like Kow TBH, as in fact the market comes close to equally supporting both consoles, both offer unique features right now specific to the market (SKY on 360 and iPlayer on PS3 for example) and in fact it's Wii software that sells the most with the Wii still ahead despite recent dips.

360 has 6,538,017 after its 68 months.  If you time adjust the PS3 - i.e. give it 68 months too - then it would be at 5,288,088.

That's close enough to potentially close the gap when I say close I make it clear I'm also allowing for additional on top - i.e. the PS3 is behind the 360 in ramp up and therefore it's monthly average should go up with holidayt spikes of which the 360 has had two extra.  If they'd launched day/date and all other things had been equal I estimate the PS3 would be at about 6 million with a gap of only 500 K.

I'm not saying it's real close as in only a slight lead.  360 has a nice lead in UK even allowing for extra time on the market.  But compare this to Japan or US.  The point is people - wrongly - see the UK as being heavily slanted to the 360 when in fact it isn't.  It's more even.  Japan is heavily, heavily slanted to the PS3, US is well slanted to the 360 (remember in US PS3 released earlier than UK so the 360 gap is more impressive there too as the time lead is less).

Some people on this site read too much into the unimportant parts of posts and manage to ignore the "meat" of the post.

As for the time release UK and Europe got the PS3 around 16 months after the launch of the 360, however it's important to note that as the 360 released early December 2005 in Euorpe it's had two holiday spikes extra and as a result has had larger holiday spikes more at the peak of its sales than the PS3.  You have to imagine a curve rising then falling when the console hits its peak.  The 360 has hit or is about to hit the peak in the UK due to time on the market.  The PS3 I believe is still rising slightly as it trails the 360 with time on the market and therefore it still has a few more spikes to accumulate than the 360.

I rekon the 360 will finish ahead of the PS3 in UK but it'll end up more as a 55/45 spilt which is fairly close in my view.  Japan will finish hugely in PS3 favour percentage split wise of the HD consoles and US will finish more in 360 favour.

Right now with the current actual numbers 360 has approx 61% of UK HD console sales to PS3 with 39 % and with the price cut I expect that to shift more to 60/40 soon (unless MS pulls of a great holidays, which is possible but would require some seriously crazt priced bundles and the likes to counter the PS3 price cut).