This is something I've been saying since well before the PS4 launched. In terms of sales ratio, the PS3 beat the 360 by a significant margin. Annual holiday price drops helped pull the 360 closer but average sales per month were much higher for the PS3. This is what you're going to look at when you compare brand appeal, not that one year head-start for the 360. That's why I kept asking for real-world reasons when so many people assumed Microsoft's next platform (the eventual Xbox One) would continue to grow market share. We had nothing to indicate that, especially after Kinect sales fell off a cliff.

The Playstation brand was stronger than the Xbox brand even with the PS3 and all its launch problems. That's what the numbers tell us. Given a even start by both next gen consoles, I think it was clear which would build a lead in total sales. Of course, I never imagined Microsoft would screw up so profoundly and give all the momentum to Sony.

It's pretty clear that it is. Playstation has a strong hold in Europe and in Japan the Xbox is a non-factor.

Of course it is. How do you think a PS3 which had a bad start and is frankly the worse product is able to beat a 360?
Because it's a world wide brand. Xbox wouldn't even be where they are right now without that one head start.

By being consumer-friendly. That means lots of high-quality exclusives and, most importantly, free online-gaming.

Microsoft needs to do the same if it wants to survive. Why would anyone buy a weaker console with worse exclusives and a dead online-gaming scene?

Yes though the differenes in gap when ps3 launched was 5-6 million. It did have a gap of 8 million though by the time ps3 slim launched.

Settling for 2nd place is EXACTLY what MS should do. Profit at 2nd or loss billions fighting a war they cant win? The answer is very simple.

No matter what any console does Playstation will come out on top unless Sony makes a mistake (not likely to happen ever again)

Dude, PS3 had better hardware compared to X360, the downside was that it was much more complicated, they didn't even want to include GPU, but realized that it would have been too complicated for third parties, they also made a built in Blu-ray disc tray; stand alone Blu-ray players used to cost ~500+ Dollars/Euros back then...

And yes, Playstation has better brand image.

They aren't gonna profit for long if sales continue being eclipsed by SONY.

At the start of next generation, no 3rd party is going to agree to an exclusive deal with Microsoft. They had the benefit of the doubt this gen with the performance of the 360, but they won't have that heading into next-gen. Moreover, it still seems MS isn't willing to invest in their own 1st party studios, so we're back at Halo, Gears and Forza  all gen long.

Online gaming on the Xbox next-gen will be deader than it is now, since all the remaining Xbone guys aren't going to take any chances and go for the PlayStation, meaning XBL revenues will decline.

Microsoft can't keep doing petty deals to try to keep up with SONY. They need something drastic to gain back marketshare, and that something drastic is removing online-gaming fees. They started this BS greedy practice that's now killing their sales. It's time for them to end it once and for all.

Of course Playstation brand is much stronger. In most countries, like in Croatia, it is the synonim for console gaming. Outside of gaming forums, nobody has even heard that XBox exists.

There are many more iOS devices out there than PS3/PS4 devices so these poll results are 100% invalid lol.