Too many people seem to think this year's decline in hardware will stay static or even disappear. When decline begins it will only grow. The only reason the 360 was able to avoid that a few years ago is because the kinect was a massive game changer. The nextbox would have already been out if it wasn't so successful.

The 360 or PS3 don't have anything like that to change their futures this year. Expect big declines. 

well it looks like the end of the 7th gen. is here.

nice to see the source.

Okay, who stealth quoted me? Show yourself!

lol, I never thought of doing that.  I think I will stealth quote you from now on!

ot: It might be more interesting in seeing the two systems individual numbers.  It seems to me that the xbox is further along in its drop off phase than the ps3.  It has been on the market a year longer after all...

You should post more threads theSource... Its still in my sig..

Okay time for a new episode of Bold Prediction Time !!!

- Xbox 360 will move 1 billion software units -

Future good PS360 software sales confirmed!

It only needs 2 more years without too much of a drop in SW sales to get there. Doable this year with no self competition. But 2014? Will 360 even be on the market through all of 2014?

2012 Xbox 360 Yearly SW: LTD HW ~ 1.93

So 360 ratio is higher than PS3, but it's still in the Source's danger zone.

I wonder if part of this drop is because late generation sales might be in part early gen buyers replacing machines and increased cross ownership. If I have a PS3 and decide to get a 360 then the number of games I'm inclined to buy is pretty low, limited more or less to the exclusives. Same with PS3 owners picking up a 360 for cheap.

The 2008 peak year is interesting because that year the 360 ratio was 4.06 and the PS3 ratio was 4.58. And 2009 was a precipitous drop to below 3 for both systems, with PS3 being a touch higher than 360. In 2010 PS3 again had a slightly higher ration than 360. In 2011 it was the same with PS3 having a marginally higher ratio. So things flipped in 2012 with 360 getting the higher ratio as the 2 systems entered the terminal phase. Given the margin for error with software sales the differences between PS3 and 360 over the last 3 are essentially negligible.

There's another factor to this terminal phase that's unique this gen compared to previous and that's the significant digital market. I would like to see the industry figures on the market share for digital sales. If it's 5% of total sales then 360 is actually out of the danger zone for 2012 at 2.02 and PS3 is still in the danger zone. At 7% market share PS3 is out of the danger zone for 2012 (just). However there's nothing that can stop 2013 plunging into the danger zone even factoring in digital game sales.

What are the numbers when separate?

So they ARE announcing the PS4 in February and releasing in 2014...