And there's your thread winner but the writings always on the wall anyway when Picard comes out.

When will the 360 Supply problem be over? Its been 3 months and the 360 is still last (in the Wii, PS3, 360 category). What game do you think will help sales the most? NG2, GOW2? I think GOW2 would be the most likley.

GOW2 and Forza 3

well i i agree that shortages hurt... but u cant use shortages as an excuse.... the ps2 is a LAST GEN console thats still is being sold and in no short supply... i agree thats shortages is a difficult thing to solve but u can only blame the dev of the console...i know its harsh but thats the way it is...

These numbers only prove that Sony is doing well. Its so funny to see everyone tell him he's cherry picking or somehow spinning the favor to Sony. But the fact is this. Sony has the PS2, PS3 and PSP still in competition. Sony IS winning the hardware war. The PS2 almost sells as much as the Wii in the US. The PS3 is competing with 360 and winning worldwide, and the PSP is selling well but Nintendo will always rule handhelds. Give the guy a break. The Wii is technically last gen hardware, so that puts it right up against the PS2. Just because it was released in 2006 doesn't make it "new" technology. I don't think Sony will stop supporting the PS2 until the PS3 gets its huge games out. The Wii shortages are Nintendo's own fault and will hurt them in the end. I doubt they can top the PS2's sales with the shortages. To break it down

Wii is competing with PS2 for the casual and cheap games market.
PS3 is competing with the 360 for the hardcore market.
PSP is competing in the handheld market.

Sony knows what they are doing. And will come out on top this generation.

I will admit I should have added "in the home?"... to the title of my post.  I honestly didn't realize how averse people here are to separating consoles and hand-helds.  I mean, on the home page of vgchartz they even group them separately.  Same with many of your sigs.

But all these accusations of cherry picking are pretty comical (and telling to your own bias').  When discussing consoles currently being sold, it would be cherry picking to leave out the unit that often comes in second (ahead of the PS3 and 360).  The image of an ostrich with its head in the sand comes to mind. "The PS2 doesn't count anymore"...  Really?!  How can that be when it outsells the "upgraded" devices that you are comparing?

So, I see what is going on here... You guys want to limit the talk about "Who is doing best with ONLY their MOST RECENT console?"...  That's totally fine, and fair.  But pardon me for thinking we all knew the answer to that... You can see the home page here or, again, most of your sigs to see who is selling the most.  Is that something that even needs discussion?

But I would encourage you all to be a bit more open to accepting what the PS2 has done and continues to do.  And perhaps be a bit more alert to Sony's not-so-secret strategy (i.e. 10 year blah, blah, blah) with their PS3.  Counting the actual sales of consoles into homes WITHOUT ignoring a big purple elephant is far from irrelevant.  

Sony has TWO players in the home console market right now.  The other two companies have one.  It is not YOU (an opinionated individual) who determines when a console becomes irrelevant... it is the market.  Sure, you can make a website and pretend that one console no longer exists... or that "it already won" so there's no need to look at it.  But THAT is cherry picking.

What you all are doing is setting yourselves up so you can define "victory" by your own terms.  And I'm not sure why it matters so much to many of you.  From the responses here, these sales are being taken waaaay too seriously.

You want to define the PS2 as already having won, so you can ignore it.  You want to define "next gen" as including the Wii against two very different devices (when we know that's arguable to many).  And if/when the Wii's lifecycle is over, you want to call it as a win... even if the 360 (or more likely) the PS3 stretches past it in total sales by virtue of it being created with the intention of extending the typical gaming generation cycle.  

 ...but you may be setting yourself up for failure.  You may have to end up contradicting yourselves.  With all the money that Nintendo is making, it may make sense for them to come out with a "HD Wii"...  There's no way they'd discontinue the current Wii.  So, what do you do at that point?  Stop counting Wii sales and put the HD Wii in 3rd place... or all by itself as an uncontested winner?

 I posted this thread to see what some of you would say... Honestly, I thought the MS people might be the most offended... (they're the upstart... this is only their second try...They're improving, even if they're behind in getting into your living room).  But I don't think a company's past performance in the market can be discounted.  Looking at the total sales of the PS1 and PS2 compared to any other consoles are pretty staggering.  I have NO IDEA if that type of success is anywhere near possible... I suppose if they continued to sell at this same rate for 9 more years, then yeah.  And it does appear that the Wii SHOULD be able to surpass Nintendo's best historical effort.

If Sony has really already sold 1/3 of its total consoles for the PS3, then I can tell you without hesitation that it (the PS3) will be considered a colossal failure.  I definitely don't think that will be the case.  Sony positioned the PS3 as a "long term investment".  It may not do what the previous consoles did, but their strategy was conservative enough to assure some degree of success over time.

If you think that what Sony has learned with the PS1 and PS2 is all completely out the window and that it has no bearing on what will happen with the PS3, then I can see why any future success might surprise you.  Maybe you'll be a blogger writing about the "comeback kid" because it is a good "story" and you just didn't see it coming.  Maybe that will be because you made the decision to ignore how the PS2 continued in the face of newer and more capable consoles.  Maybe you will forget how big of an issue pricing is...  Maybe the move to HD by consumers will be surprising to you... Maybe you would have never expected that game to be THAT good... I don't know...

Or maybe you're right... and the PS3 will top out at about 30 mil and Sony will dump it. 

Just remember, the past is prologue...

blykmik, even if you want to say "in the home" you are ignoring signifficant factors.

For example, combined total software sales of the PS2 and PS3 are around half the total software for the Wii. This implies two important things: 1) Most PS2 purchases are replacements and 2) The consoles are relatively inactive, and not generating much revenue for publishers.

You're also ignoring the fact that the PS2 accounts for almost 60% of the hardware sales and less than 40% of software sales. Once again, this shows that the PS2 consoles are relatively inactive, and are mostly purchased as replacements.

And finally, it's rather ridiculous to say that handhelds and home consoles aren't in the same market when the DS stole the main game in what was by far Sony's biggest Japanese exclusive: Dragon Quest.

Discussion is welcome right? I just wanted to put out my opinions on a couple things you said.

First, your theory an HD Wii may be coming out earlier than the normal generational gap. I don't think there is any reason to think that actually. I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility, but I've never subscribed to the constant arguements several people have said "HD will be the determinant in console purchases here, anytime now,....anytime now....I promise, eventually". Wii has been against two HD consoles the entire time. And plenty of us HD TV owners, still bought a Wii even though we had an HD TV first. I just don't personally think there is a reason to think a new version of Wii will come out very soon, simply because it's the least powerful console.

You are absolutely right that it's pretty staggering to look at the total sales of the PS1 and PS2. They are definitely king in home consoles. I think you are downplaying the Wii though, in saying it SHOULD pass Nintendo best historical efforts. The Wii has sold more at the 16 month mark than ANY console in history has, INCLUDING portable systems. I don't personally know, or have the most faith in it keeping up the sales rate. It would be amazing to keep it up. But....the Wii, very well could outsell both the PS1 and PS2 lifetime sales in it's lifetime.

Though, that doesn't take away from Sony having done amazing with the PS1 and PS2, or from them doing pretty good right now.

Those software numbers are definitely significant.  I'm not sure how to get all the data for it here, but it would be interesting to compare all home console software sales in those two periods (360 launch to now & PS3/Wii launch to now)... 

 If there is clear dominance there, that is definitely an important fact.  

But I'm sticking to my guns on seperating handhelds from home consoles.  I'm not saying they're not both in the gaming market... I'm saying that they are clearly different products with different overlapping, yet often very different target audiences.   I think Nintendo is the king of handhelds and the PSP was a nice first try by Sony...  Microsoft hasn't even entered this area.  If it makes people feel better to remind us of handhelds in every reply, feel free.  But I'll never accept that it is unfair to differentiate handhelds from in-home consoles.