Both consoles work the same way, have 90% of the same library and are already behind other gaming devices like PCs and tablets in terms of digital features...

They will both sell like shit but PS4 will sell better. 2-1 sounds about right.

Alot of console gamers do not game on PC, so those standards do not apply.

What the tablet market does is irrelevant, good luck playing  Assassins Creed, Battlefield 4 and the witcher 3 on exclusively on your tablet.

Let's use this gen ending sales as an example of how next gen sales might go. PS3 has outsold xbox 360 for almost every year. This year PS3 is handily outselling xbox. PS did all of this with a bad launch, higher price vs. xbox, psn outage and issues, and consumer backlash with the taking away of otherOS. Now with the ps4 taking care of all of its shortcomings and with M$ in real bad light I can make a conservative prediction of ps4 outselling xbox worldwide 1.5:1 Lifetime.

I dont know why people always bring up all the negative things the ps3 went through when talking about how the ps3 eventually overcame the 360.  You do realize that the 360 probably had an even worse launch, and struggled for 3 years with some of the biggest consumer backlashes ever with its rrod right?  Or that xbox live cost momey and psn didnt.  Its not like sony conquered some opponent who did everything right.  They both struggled, a lot, but the 360 made even more mistakes than the ps3 did. 

Sony certainly seems poised to take the lead next gen, for sure.  However, who knows what kind of problems can happen, may the ps4 will have a rrod type of disaster.  There is a lot more that can go wrong besides pricing.  

For 2013 you are right, these devices will most likely sell out. I was talking more about lifetime sales.

While there is still a large portion of "core" console gamers they are not as large as you think and are shrinking. I doubt we would see half of the console sales last gen if only people buying these systems were exclusively "hardcore gamers". Wii would have 1/3 of the sales and PS3 and 360 would probably have 20-30 million less as well.

This gen we should see even more people buying consoles as entertainment devices, cable boxes, multitasking machines, IPTV devices, casual gaming and app launcher devices, Skype for the livingroom devices...etc. So yeah, they need to compete with smartphones, tablets, laptops, Apple TV, Rokku, and many other connected devices that are invading the livingroom.

I'm always surprised when I see how narrow minded the core gamers tend to be when it comes to self importance to these consoles and their lifetime sales. The days of core games and gamers selling consoles are 3-4 years behind. Core gamers are the ones that will pay the 400-500 dollar price, but once we get to 299, its all mass market sales.

I dont know why people always bring up all the negative things the ps3 went through when talking about how the ps3 eventually overcame the 360.  You do realize that the 360 probably had an even worse launch, and struggled for 3 years with some of the biggest consumer backlashes ever with its rrod right?  Or that xbox live cost momey and psn didnt.  Its not like sony conquered some opponent who did everything right.  They both struggled, a lot, but the 360 made even more mistakes than the ps3 did. 

Sony certainly seems poised to take the lead next gen, for sure.  However, who knows what kind of problems can happen, may the ps4 will have a rrod type of disaster.  There is a lot more that can go wrong besides pricing.  

-One box was $399 (£279), the other was $599 (£429). People don't consider the long term cost, because its all about cashflow. 

-One box had a year headstart, the other didn't.

-One box had superior exclusives (check metacritic) for the first 2 years (Gears, forza 2, Mass effect, Bioshock, Halo 3 vs uncharted 1, resistance, lair, warhwak, heavenly sword and motostorm) 

I'd say the ps3 definitely had the bigger uphill battle for the first few years, merely from a gaming standpoint the 360 was better initially. The only fault of the 360 was RROD which IMO doesn't outweight all the things which sony had to go up against.

I worked at retail when both systems came out, you cant understand how big of a deal the rrod was until you see how many people it affected firsthand.  The first year on the markey ms was supply constrained because literally every shipment that came in went to people with broken 360s.  

You want to compare which console had the worse launch?  Compare the sells of each console from their respective launch years.  Sony outsold the 360 from the start.  

Thats all besides the point i was making.  People talk about the ps3 having thishuge uphill battle against the 360 like the 360 came out strong.  The point i was making is that they both had terrible launches.  The only console that had a good launch last gen was the wii.