So except for the last few million N64s sold after 2000, we totally disregard everything pre-5th gen, completely ignore all handhelds post-4th gen, assume Wii stops selling today, assume WiiU is way over tracked, assume Xbox 360 will continue to sell like it is for a couple more years, and assume Xbox One is way under tracked.

You've picked every straw humanly possible, and Nintendo still has a 16 million edge.

The thread is from 2000 onwards, if you want to do a lifetime all systems thread go right ahead, nobody is stopping you.

Wii has another 500k~ left in it, I've not assumed WiiU is overtracked, I've used the latest shipping figures which will be updated tomorrow. 360 will slow down, I've assumed that in my estimation (but that isn't in the OP so what are you talking about?) And the XB1 figure is the latest shipping figure.

Nice try.

If they're closing that gap at the speed they're currently going, it WILL be within this century, sure, but not anytime soon. ;)

Hey, if only, this is the reason why the comparison is interesting: we know that counting sales since the beginning Ninty overwhelmes MS, but it's not a thing that will take discussion so far and comparing them also during the period when MS was'n in the console market at all makes little sense beyond the big fact that Ninty saw this market's potential 18 years before, really a big fact, but once you stated it there isn't much to discuss until we just reach the point when MS entered the market initially not even to diversify or seek profit, but only to stop a supposed, but actually inexistent, "Sony threat for MS", and when we discuss this we're in fact towards the end of the XX century if we talk about XBox project, and already in the XXI century if we talk about actual sales. Comparing them since 2000 is quite fair, it even concedes Ninty the advantage of its 5th gen console last few million sales. From then on you can see accelerations and slowdowns on both sides, making the outcome a lot less sure, and the discussion more lively and interesting.

Desperate times call for desperate number skewing.

In that case he misspelled Norway/Switserland wrong

Is that because Switzerland has a "z"?

Yet Microsoft have yet to taste the sweet success of actually winning a gen.

Ok so you've used up to date Microsoft numbers and out of date Nintendo numbers to swing things in your favour.. I can live with that. But even with your classic Microsoft PR spin, the gap has still gone from 3 million to 16 million. How does that mean Microsoft is catching?

I was thinking the same thing. Their intention was to move the PC into the livingroom, eliminating the need for consoles. They've bled money into Xbox for more than a decade and watched the PC market change entirely while they were "playing games".

By and large, a company the size of Microsoft should have trampled Sony and Nintendo to the point in which they were willing to sell their brands over (M$ actually did try to buy Nintendo out) within 6-8 years. They might have been able to accomplish their goals with the Xbox One launch had they completely controlled the markets, and we'd all be stuck with always online, fees on used games, mandatory XBL accounts for observers, etc.

As it is, they are no closer to taking the market entirely than when they started. Nintendo is back in the ~20m units a generation debacle they were facing with the GCN when Microsoft entered the scene and Sony is dominating the field once more. 

And that's exactly what Microsoft's billions have accomplished -- stirring the pot.