When we look at total sales for the PS3, and Xbox 360, There is only a slight lead in PS3's favour, however once you factor in the tragic start Sony had with the genertaion and PS3 its quite suprising that it got the lead at all. 

Even with a considerable time adavantage, cheaper price point, and arguabley more games for the first half of the generation, and much better marketing the Xbox 360 couldn't hold onto its lead. 

As I said the lead in PS3's favour took years to get and is only quite small. However when looking at total sales for each year PS3 was in front of X360 from 2009-2013. 

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Those 5 years of being in the lead with Microsfot doing all they could to sell as many consoles as possible, Cheaper price, Millions and millions of dollars of very well done marketing.

I just dont't believe that Microsoft has the brand power to sell more consoles than Sony.  Now that this Gen has started and Sony now has now taken two of Microsofts advantages away price and time. I think there is 0% chance of microsoft getting infront for the rest of the generation. 

What are your thoughts?

I think Sony won't be number one next-gen and Microsoft will be 3rd place

If Sony can bring back the PS3, Microsoft can bring back the XBO

Every gen is new and different. There is always a chance, however small. Historical data from previous generations has proven to be very unreliable at predicting winners. Who knows, microsoft could introduce some kind of game changer like wii fit or kinect for example.

Plus, your reference fails to recognize microsofts own failures last gen. They did some major damage to their brand early on with the rrod. Microsoft didnt have a perfect start last time, and they certainly didnt have a perfect start this time.

Probably because of Japan.

When you consider the fact that M$ only has a presence in 2/3s of the markets that Sony does, and the fact that one of those markets has been heavy Sony territory for 3 generations now, is it really surprising that the PS3 eventually overtook the 360?

The more interesting stat is that despite Sony dominating for 2 consecutive generations, they still lost North America to M$ by nearly a 2-1 margin this past gen.

Not sure what you are trying to prove or disprove with this thread. Microsoft has never held the number one position world wide. Doing so would be quite outside the norm for sure.

More important for them is getting to a strong user base where they can make money on their own first party software and royalties from third party games. If handled with some conservatism even Gamecube level of sales can be profitable for a company. Not that anyone should be aiming for those in this competitive market.

Microsoft should look into improving their profit margins while providing value to the customer. Xbox brand was also something that made Microsoft somewhat "cool" in people's eyes. They need to repair the damage done to brand and get it back stronger.

Probably not #1 but MS still has this year to bring something out of their asses and they certainly can do it but the question is... are they willing to spend their hard earned windows/enterprise/royalty dollars on it?

Ultimately it boils down to this you either achieve dominance at one point in the game industry or you don't. Original Xbox, ended up in third place, Xbox 360 is currently in third place, Xbox One is currently in third place. Every gen is different as stated by gergroy, things can go either way. Nintendo's handhelds are essentially as dominant as Sony consoles, Microsoft has no stronghold as we speak besides Online Infrastructure. Microsoft have a lot to prove can it step up and win a console generation. Under pressure a champion can be born, the greatest successes are born out of failure at times its to early to cast doom, even past successes and failures mean nothing PS3 isn't going to sell like the PS2 it will mildly beat PS1 if its even lucky. So there is hope for Xbox One to be the champion consoles the Xbox and Xbox 360 wanted to be.

Ditto.