Why were you surprised PS3 made a comeback? They had Japan and 360 didn't. That is the only reason both consoles are near identical in sales.

Lucidium would be quite cross if Ballmer nuked Japan.

See what you are trying to do is be "fair" when business is anything but. If we are comparing the consoles in their 8th year, then you do just that. No exceptions.

Their are many factors and excuses. I could say 360 held onto the same NA pricing since 2008 where as PS3 dropped $150 in 5 years and introduced a $200 model just to stay competitive to the coasting 360. But again, it doesn't change the facts. PS3 dropping faster in its 8th year then 360 did. Regardless of market conditions, which are always changing.

Its something that Xbox apologists want to deny, but logically speaking, the Xbox only has 1 region where it was trully sucessful on (the US). This time around, Sony didnt make mistakes so Europe is not up for grabs anymore.
With only 1 region it is absolutely impossible to be number 1.

But, i think MS wuld be happy aslong as they sell enough consoles to be profitable. It looks really bad though.

You're just ignoring all the facts because it suits your agenda.

I'm not being fair I'm being pragmatic, what does the 360's eigth year have to do with 2013? Nothing. Its Year 9 was in 2013, thats what matters cause then we can see the decline in proportion to next-gen adoption. We can't seperate that from decline rates because we don't have information on consumer motivation, so sales in 2012 of one platform don't make much sense when comparing the 2013 sales of a competing platform. 

You can't generalize the event of PS4 and XBOX1 releasing as "market conditions" because these events only happen once in a generation.

The fact is that the PS4/XB1 are accelerating the decline rates, and so theree is literally no other viable reason for the PS3 to take a hit like this in its eight year, and the 360 in its 9th which they both are.

Furthermore, its not relevant to predicting the sales of PS4 and XB1 because of how different they are from their predecessors.

we had an entire gen of "...if it wasn't for japan..." excuses.   this gen the net will just narrow even further. 'merica is really the only place the matters when you really think about it...

Umm...Europe?

PS3 dropping faster than 360 in it's 8 year is straight facts, but to use that as a talking point is downright stupid. To say "regardless of market condition", in this case, the release of next gen consoles, is just so you having an "argument" to suit your position of 360 > PS3. 360 and PS3 sales BOTH declined with the release of PS4 and XBone.  To dwell on "doesn't matter, 8th year only comparisons" ignores all reasons why the sales were what they were for the PS3 in its 8th year in order to discount the 360s 9th year (where factors affecting sales apply to both consoles) since it's doing worse than PS3 right now, in favor of the 360s 8th year, where it had pretty much 0 next gen competition (since WiiU is pretty nonexistant in the grand scheme of things) to disrupt and "cause a decline in 8th year sales", as is the case with the PS3.

It's not an "excuse" to say that next gen consoles affect current gen console sales. "8th year only comparisons" is actually the "excuse" because it's a specifically picked criteria in order to push an agenda.

If the PS3 outsells the Xbox 360 while being more expensive throughout the entire gen, then what chance does Xbox One have even if they drop they price the console the exact same as the PS4? 

There is no chance that the Xbox One outsells the PS4 unless it's in a region or two. I think the PS4 will even double the Xbox One sales in the future.

Xbox like anything has it's dedicated fanbase but not to the extent Nintendo and Playstation have. I'm not sure if it ever will. A bit like Sega almost