Yes, that's the big question. What is most affecting their sales? Are the stock issues preventing them to be much higher or is the hype causing a front-loaded behaviour in the numbers? I guess we will only find out in the months to come.

No global launch yet for 2 of them, so no global comparison. I'm trying to keep this in a "same conditions" comparison.

I'm not so sure about who will win in Japan. It's obvious that the Japanese like Nintendo and motion controls (we can see that looking at the huge success Wii did in there), and Wii U is doing quite well too. But PS3 caught up well among the generation and has now 76% of Wii sales. What will do PS4 (a more appealing console since the beginning) against a not so new concept (Wii U) as its predecessor? Or will the 1 year advantage of Wii U and its better core capabilities than Wii make the difference?

Regarding Xbox One, I think you're right but history won't repeat itself. Microsoft's new console will do even worse than X360 once the company won't invest in there as much as in the past. They've learned the same amount of money could produce much greater results in the West.

Clever thought.

I don't think so. Close but not fierce. As a market, Japan is becoming more and more irrelevant for home consoles. They are still the 2nd biggest country in videogaming but not only they are focusing more on handhelds but also new emerging markets are making Japan's share to become thinner. And console makers understand that. Look at the beginning of the 7th generation: Japan had all the 3 consoles at launch while Europe had only 2. Look at the current generation: Japan had only 1 console at launch while Europe had all 3.

3rd parties will keep on ignoring Nintendos console, especially the Japanese 3rd parties. Nintendo consoles are solely dependent on Nintendo franchises. The PS4 is easier to develop for and therefore more attractive for Japanese 3rd parties to make their game on that console only. Last gen Wii outsold PS3 and PS3 still got most of the 3rd party support, the huge marketshare of PS4 in the West and its easier to develop for architecture will result in more Japanese PS4 support this time.

japanese third party support on wiiu has been pretty horrible, there is already way third party japese games anounced on ps4.

Very interesting to see a graph of this, thanks.

Looks like America will be a good bit closer this Gen.  I wonder if Europe will be closer as well (to make up for America) to keep the two of them close.

Even though PS4One are not out in Japan, a global comparison would be nice to see too.

Edit:  I see you want to keep things even.  I respect that. 

The europe PS4 overkill is also about non or hard disponibility of XB1 in a lot of countries.

Really O.o i didn't know XB1 was hard to find... well the Xbox 360 is in stores everywhere where I live and it's still getting outsold by PS3. I always like to think that europe is PS territory.

You can to find the XB1 very easily in Europe but people here clearly prefer the PS4 (sold out in almost all stores)

Dat Line!!

*Hard to find in countries out of the 13 it was released in. In belgium (where i live) you have to import it yourself, with all taxes and everything, plus no support for dutch language (tough i'm a french speaker). Of course Xb1 is out in the "most important" territories, but it's still a bullet in the foot for microsoft.