So it would do better in Japan if it was renamed to something else? Anti-american sentiments? how does Apple do so well abroad? Anti-MS? Windows is still the biggest OS world wide, despite Mac. Would you really exclude buying a product depending on which company made or? (Or should I say, owns it, since most technology is manaufactured  in south-east asia.)

LMAO, you realize 16 million is barely a drop in the bucket right?  That's barely over 10% of the PS2's lifetime sales.  It's been said before, but I'll say it again.  There are over 120 million PS2 owners.  What do you think they're all gonna buy when they decide to upgrade?  Even if 50 million of them choose 360 over PS3 (which they won't) the 360 will still come in third.

Jump Out, Play B3yond.

I agree, Sony guys should not have a field day just yet. But the MS guys shouldn't be celebrating either, as a matter of fact, they should be baffled by the point that 360 outsold the PS3 by such a small margin.

Like i said before.

cheaper console, better marketing, 1 year head start, graphical superiority (for now), larger software library (this gen), more AAA titles, Halo3 (flagship title) and a better/developed online service.

I was expecting MS to blow away the PS3 in 07 (much like everyone else) and for Sony to start gaining any sort of momentum only when MGS4 was released. Sony screwed up alot in 07 and had alot of negative press, it would seem that MS did not capitalize in terms of sales, but the fact was that they did do everything better but only came away with only half a million more.

Hey, the only partying you'll be doing is dancing to the tune of my bullets in Warhawk :P

 You seem to assume that they have any kind of brand loyalty. The people we are talking about are the 'casual' gamers, the people who bought a PS2 for GTA+Singstar+GT+Buzz, the people who bought it for >$200. 

These people are not fanboys. 

Per Sony's annual report, 2003 was the best year in the gaming division's profits in the PS2 years, peaking at 112.7B yen (~$1B).

Since that year, that division's profits went down per subsequent annual reports.  And so far in 2007 thru the first two quarters, the gaming division total losses are (125.9Byen). 

Sales of PS2 and PSP have dramatically increased over the year, but the low sale prices mean that profits, while increasing dramatically as well, won't matter as much as getting having the PS3 sell for a loss. 

It's amazing that PS3 was able to sell more in this quarter than in the past 3Qs.  But if costs have not been driven out of the systems, by well over the $100 cut, losses for this quarter could be dramatic at well.   That is, say the 2M PS3 sold between April and September lost $300 a piece.  That would account for $600M loss (this being the variable part, fixed parts such as the factory, employees accounts for the other part of the loss).  If cost cutting has dropped out $200 of cost (in the last quarter) and then the price drop of $100, means that the losses would still be $200 a piece.  Times the 4M sold for the quarter and the PS3 losses go UP to $800M. 

Hopefully for Sony's sake, costs are going down dramatically as well.  The shareholders will find out in February.  Will they be like Pyrrhus and exclaim: 'One more such victory and we are lost'?

Of course, MS must be feeling a bit of the same.  Keep a bit of profits right now, especially with their games selling well in the US, versus completely losing Europe if they don't do some price cutting fairly soon. 

I exclude products everyday because of the company that makes it, 360 is among them. Windows is the biggest OS because simply almost every computer you buy at a retailer has Windows pre-installed on them, if you would be able to choose to have OS-X when you bought your computer for the same price, you would most defintly see a change. It also gains ALOT of ground simply because super large companys buy insane amounts of computers and have old deals with the retailer to use Windows. 

Apple does well because in later years, it havn't fucked up, MS has though. Apple has great quality in its products, MS lacks that, and that really shows in Europe, I guess we go for quality over pricetag.

On topic: Yey for Sony! ;)

I agree with MakingMusic476 - I think brand loyalty has a lot to do with these good PS3 numbers in comparison to the 360 (given all the negative PS3 feeling). Microsoft is associated with "boring PC stuff" and negative press whereas both Nintendo and Sony are associated with gaming.

I think it'll take Microsoft about 3-4 generations of gaming hardware to overcome this (if they can at all) and lets face it, the 360 is doing much better than the original X-Box did so they're getting there slowly.

With Launch dates aligned PS3 seems to have done better in its first year since launch, the 2007 holiday sales nudging it just ahead of 360. PS3 has sold about 8.9 million, in comparison 360 sold about 7.9 million.
Wii is on a league of its own though.

I'll keep it simple....Everyone was bashing Sony and "banning" it to the "last place" position on the podium. Although, nobody can declare a winner between the ps3 & 360, we have a ball game now, which we didn't before.

Nobody who is honest expected Sony to outsell the 360 and make such a turn around this holiday with the line-up and momentum the 360 already had. The battle is far from over, but Sony just got serious.

I look for the ps3 to continue to outsell the 360 in Europe & Japan, but the 360 to outsell the ps3 in America in 08'. I think to have a chance the ps3 has to at least start to narrow the gap between itself and the 360 in America and that may be possible with its mid-late 08' line-up. Time will tell.