Without Japan, it will be very difficult for PS4 to pass Wii at lfietime sales. At this rate PS4 will struggle to reach 4 million in Japan LT, 7-8 million decifit will be hard to overcome considering that this gen will probably be shorter than the last.

Expected. Wii had the the casual opus from the beginning, but PS4 will have better legs like tradition on Sony consoles.

Frankly, this is more of a testament to how well the PS4 has been selling. The fact that it was ahead of the Wii for this long with a higher price and no big mass-market software boggles my mind.

That said, by the end of the year, the gap will have massively increased. The Wii sold around 19.5m units by the end of 2007 (its first 13 months). At the end of this year the PS4 will be several million behind that.

But the fact that PS4 seems to be the winning horse this gen and that it won't be abandoned in its last few years like the Wii was, it will almost certainly make a comeback.

Wii was just a phenomenon, I don't think we'll see anything quite like that again in the console business.

Wii exploded over the holidays. If anything PS4 will catch up in 3-4 years time. Wii really peaked out after 4 years.

Do you by any chance have PS2 figures?

Make that at least 5, if ever...

The life time product cycle sales figures of the Wii and PS4 will vary drastically; an apples and oranges comparison 6 months later doesn't mean much.

With the Wii, there was a product that was vastly underproduced initially, relative to consumer demand, at a broad market friendly MSRP of $249. The only thing keeping the Wii from selling far more than it did over the same 6 months was supply constraint, pure and simple. Supplies remained constrained for the better part of 3 years.

With the PS4, supplies were extremely constrained for about 4 months by comparison; they're generally available 6 months after launch, selling briskly at a $399 MSRP.

The big difference will be in longevity. By 2010, the Wii had already passed it peak and sales dropped quite drastically in the following years with support currently in the process of being cut globally. By contrast, every PS console has seen continued support for at least 10 years, with the sales to support continued production.

While there are arguments that the 8th gen will be over faster than any other and that everyone will be playing games on their cell phones and tablets or Windows PCs inside of 5 years (I don't agree), odds are the PS4 will be supported for 10 years, leaving a lot of time for the platform to accumulate sales.

The Wii was a quick burner; twice as bright and half as long. Playstation consoles on the other hand, tend to be consistent and continual burners.

You really should compare the launches by region - otherwise you include extra time in one region, too little in another and so on.

That PS4 had a strong launch isn't surprising - as brands become more established year one fans become more and more dedicated. I've always worked on the assumption that the 9m people who bought PS3 with no games for $600 are the people buying PS4 now.

NES hardly sold at all initially, same with PS1. PS2 and SNES had very strong launches. PS3 and N64 had strong launch years relative to their lifetime figures 9m out of 90m, and 6m out of 33m. The PS4 arch will be more concentrated in the early years, just as PS2 and PS3 were concentrated than their predecessors. The only difference is that PS3 effectively had no peak year - it sold the same amount give or take 10% for three years in 09'-11' which is uncommon. PS2 and PS1 were voliatle and had definite peaks 20% higher than the others.

A wild Source appeared!