The ONLY thing MS wins this gen is the US, and even that's VERY unlikely. Worldwide? Not even worth debating. Sony wins that sleep walking.

Fanboyism is a terrible, tragic disease with no known cure.

Err, actually 360 has outsold PS3 worldwide (just google for their recent respective 80 million sold announcements, Sony's was 3 weeks after Microsoft's)

Also, your points are valid, but do note the PS3 had an uncontested market all to itself in Japan to skew the worldwide sales (which wont change with PS4, but still makes the PS3 accomplishment of almost catching 360 come with a caveat, meaning 360 outsold PS3 to a greater degree everywhere outside Japan).

MS has made it difficult for themselves but it's a long generation. a simple price cut to 399 for Xbox One at any time for example would change a lot of things. They'll also have the big guns of Halo and Gears waiting in the wings. Sony has big guns of Uncharted and god of bore waiting, but imo those franchises are not as big to the mainstream (despite their popularity on forums)

Multimedia functions are going to be more a function of software as they dont require a lot of power. That's Sony's weak spot in general. All the slick TV/Snap stuff on Xbox is a good example. PS4 easily has the power to do that stuff, yet it doesn't, because Sony didn't invest the resources into it like MS did.

......

Has this been the first time you've logged in since 2010 out of curiosity?

I don't know.  I wouldn't underestimate the Xbox LIVE ecosystem.  I already have a group of friends pressuring other friends to get Xbox One.  And if those guys want to keep playing online (Ghosts for example) with eachother they will need to have the same system.

One of the guys who I am better friends with (back to left 4 dead) WANTED to get the PS4, but was talked into an Xone by the peers.  I was hoping he would get the PS4, as that would be the system I wanted first.

What do you have issue with in my post? Would you like links for the respective recent 80m announcements?

As I said, MS has made it an uphill battle initially mostly due to the 499 price, but it's way to long a generation to conclude a winner just yet.

By the way, I'm just thinking out loud here, but what's with the notion that Japan was Sony's only saving grace for the edge in worldwide sales? Should we pretend that the 360 didn't benefit from the PS3 being grotesquely overpriced for over 5 years in the UK?

First of all, while it is true that the 360 had a year head start, it did not launch any better than the ps3 did.  It struggled big time with reliability issues for the first three years.  The truth is that they both had pretty terrible launches which left the door open for the wii.

secondly, to say it was more expensive without much added benefit is a bit crazy when you think of how much money sony was loosing.  Theyw ere losing like 300 bucks a console when that thing launched.  Also, the cheapest blu ray players at the time were over a thousand bucks, so the blu ray capabilities of the ps3 were a huge benefit.

as far aswho will win this gen, it is way too early to say.  Right now, it looks pretty likely that ps4 will win, but there is always the chance of the game being changed.  Future exclusives, hardware redesigns, new accessories like kinect, there are lots of potential game changers so I wouldnt say anything is set in stone.  The x1 isnt even out yet and we havent even seen how either console will perform once demand has been satisfied.  

The most I could say is right now the ps4 is off to a great start and looks like to be dominant early on.

Huh? That is Sony's own fault then if that is the case (I dont live in UK). Nobody made them include an expendsive Blu Ray any more than somebody made MS include Kinect. I'm just pointing out facts.

Are you going to dsay "Ps4 only sold more cause X1 was grotesquely overpriced" if initial sales reports favor PS4? It's the exact same situation.

Nope, each platform holder must live with their decisions. But we can analyze those.