In the short term Nintendo won the generation by a profit margin that we will probable never see again in the gaming industry.

But looking at the meduim-long term, Microsoft seem to me at the time to have a massive advantage going forward into the next generation. As they sold the best for the last few years in the biggest market (USA) and the best selling third party software now tends to be more from Western rather Asian developed. But with it successor being a weaker/more expensive than it nearest competitor in the PlayStation, the bad press over DRM, forcing people to have kinnect, no release time window advantage and with less support from more niche titles e.g. Indie, JPRG. They have screwed up big time.

Sony lost a lot ground over the last generation, however they are slowly are rebuilding towards their original market dominance but still a long way to go match the feats of their 1st/2nd Home consoles.

Summing up I see the Wii was a very profitable but short term fad. Microsoft gained a lot ground on their competitors but seemingly to be throwing that away by some bad recent decisions on their next console. Sony are just trying to regain the ground they lost from previous generations. To be honest I don't think their is real winner to previous generation overall.

Wii, PS3, 360.

Sony won my respect. Nintendo lost my respect.

The wii apparently won by hardware and retail software sold.
But what about the digital games sold by Sony and Microsoft?

Does someone know the figures about digital money made by the 2 challengers? (obviously Nintendo did not sell much games digitally during Wii era)

The PS3 sold at a high price - and still made a 300 $ loss for every unit sold. What's your point?

People are being so defensive in this thread when people say the Wii won with sales, PS3 or 360 won because of the games. The difference between this gen and any other gen is that during any other gen, the console leader also had the best games. NES had the best games during its gen, SNES had the best games during its gen, PSX had the best games during its gen, PS2 had the best games during its gen, etc.

This gen the Wii has only won in sales and unlike every other gen it hasn't had the best games. It's actually had the worst games out of the three consoles. So it's a win for Nintendo because of the sales, but it's a loss to Nintendo fans. 

The only time you see Nintendo fans saying "it's all about the games, or gameplay" is when people are comparing graphics between the consoles and Nintendo's console is the worst in that regard, or whenever Nintendo isn't the leader in sales.  Is it about the games or isn't it about the games? Or is it only about the games when it benefits you to be about the games?

Here's a post I made two days ago, a reply that was basically even if Vita or Wii U or failures, I'm still going to own both because it's all about the games. This was posted two days ago and my opinion hasn't changed.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=163370&page=3#5

So in my opinion, the PS3 won, and just as I said in the post linked above. " I don't care if it's sold one million systems or one billion systems. It's all about the games." The PS3 is the system this gen that has the best games.

PS3 had best games based on what? Opinion?

Nintendo fans lost? Nintendo put out plenty of great games this gen, and Nintendo fans don't care much about 3rd party.

Yes, opinion.  Because as you know.  "Who won this gen?" is a question, a question people are going to answer with their opinions, yet people are being defensive and attacking others in this thread because their opinion isn't "Nintendo." 

I even started the last paragraph with "So in my opinion, the PS3 won," Your offhand reply wasn't needed.

You're confusing laughing at/mocking with "attacking".

The wii won its own generation but interesting to note is it might have lost them the next generation. PS3 selling well in later years might pave way for good early PS4 sales (or not since people are just buying PS3). 360 selling decent in all years might pave way for decent Xbox One sales.