I didn't mean in total shipments this quarter. I meant this quarter them shipping the same amount. Meaning 360 doesnt pull away and Ps3 doesn't gain.

yea thats a possibility. i think that happened in 2010 was it? they both shipped the same amount. to be honest, im actually leaning towards sony shipping more for the quarter because of the new slim and good advertising. for the first time, im seeing playstation ads the most.

well yes, but the difference is that ps3 always closes the gap during the year (as seen here) but xbox erases the gain with its massive xmas sales. This time however, the 2 million ps3 has closed the gap down to will stay there.

i'm thinking the gap will be down to 600k by end of Oct 2013

Does this even matter now that the next gen has started?

Who takes 2nd will ultimately depend on who supports their legacy system the longest. Which is pretty irrelevant in the bigger picture.

for some it ends, and for others(like PS2) last for ever. or maybe you should ask sega fans. next gen. starts at different times for different people.

Not exactly.  This year points to the 360 not being as big in the holidays as it has been the past 2 years, most likely the Kinect effect wearing off.  So, it seems the writing is on the wall.  The PS3 will pass the 360 before MS or Sony make any plans to discontinue their systems.

really? good for Sony.

What if Microsoft does a perm $100 price drop early next year, then what happens?

well its a bit more complicated than that. The amount of consoles you can sell, even after the gen is over is just as much of a concern to devs. For instance, some big games were still being released on ps2 even after ps3 was released, so going into the end of the gen with a strong hand still matters to devs, especially when you consider that games often get ported across generations, like multiplats that hit both ps3 and 2.

Even thoigh the gen symbolically ends when new consoles come out, the overlap actually lasts for a long time and does indeed hold sway with developers. A 100mil ps3 in 2015 will still draw devs. It all depends on how the consumers decide to support it.