The XBO is ahead of the 360 which was ahead of the first Xbox at the same point in time in the US. It's hardly Microsoft's worst gen. It's actually their best.

Looks to me like Nintendo and MS are the ones who should be questioned, not Sony if you're talking console sales.

Nintendo better hope their portables do not take any more damage from kids playing on tablets, because if there's continued erosion into next gen, they are screwed.

Microsoft has never proven they can compete with Sony anywhere but the US, if you're conceding 2/3 markets from day 1, you've already lost.

Looks to me like MS/Nintendo are the ones in a tough spot. Unless Sony does something stupid like make the Playstation 5 $600 again or Nintendo creates a new miracle fad for soccer moms (unlikely), they've both shown they're not very good at competing with the Playstation brand. 

That's not getting their "shit together", both Nintendo and MS had some very fortunate bounces go their way the 7th gen. MS had a full year headstart and then Sony's upper divisions forced Blu-Ray onto the PS3 making it $600, which means basically MS got like a 2 year headstart, because the first year for the PS3 was very slow due to the price. 

Nintendo never has been able to compete head on with Sony for the core gamer market. The Wii was a miracle controller they purchased from an Ameircan inventor (after Sony/MS turned it down) that allowed them to tap into a different casual audience, but that audience has abandoned them in favor of smart devices. 

It's easy to construct a case where Sony can retain control over America and gain hold of Japan as far as consoles go. The same cannot be said for Microsoft and Nintendo respectively in these regions since they both have lower potential to sell their consoles in the future ...

By the end of this year Microsoft will have used their biggest franchise to push the charts in America so after that they'll be left with Gears and a price drop to $300 which leaves them vulnerable for the rest of their lifetime. Nintendo will be hard-pressed to be able to sustain any sort of meaningful momentum in the near future when they have yet to announce any new software for 2016 and beyond for the WII U in Japan ...

it would probably be very similar to the seventh generation, sony's worst generation.

This whole argument hinges on the fact that Wii U still has the higher install base. That is a very weak argument since PS4 has been beating Wii U since launch in more weeks than not and that is without the mega sellers that are on the close horizon. Add to that the Vita and combined they are more than competitive against both of Nintendo's devices, including freakishly strong 3DS.
PS4 is crushing everything in Europe and is beating X1 in MS' strongest markets.

There is absolutely no doubt that Sony will have all territories completely locked down by the end of 2016. I hope that makes you think.

Honestly, I think a PS console that was more powerful could definitely survive a $100 difference.  The problem with the PS3 was that the price difference was $200.  $299 vs $499.  Or $399 vs $599 for the premium SKUs.  If the entry price was still $299 for the 360, but Sony could have pulled a price point of $399, while showcasing the PS3's HW strengths a little earlier on (like Uncharted releasing in late 2006, instead of late 2007), Sony would have crushed it last gen.  Not as much as they are now, but I think it would have allowed them them to be able to take a close 1st, while 360 would have taken a much more distant 3rd.

The problem with that is the only two reasons they are ahead of the 360.  One is because of a much better launch, which was partly caused by last gen going for so long, people were ready to move on.  This also helped the PS4's launch.  And two, they decided to take losses through price cuts and fire sales.  However, the XBO is showing that it's not going to have the same kind of legs that the 360 enjoyed, and MS is decreasing the amount of money they are pumping into Xbox, so we'll see fewer fire sales and large 3rd party exclusives (timed or real.)

While the XBO will be ahead of this year's corresponding numbers for 360's full 2nd year by a few 100K, possibly 1M+, it's not very likely that it will match it's 3rd year (22.9M) or 4th year (34.1M) LTD.  And impossible to match it's 5th year (46.1M) and 6th year (59.6M) LTD. In fact, I imagine ~60M to be about the highest the XBO will reach.

You're almost making it seem as if ROW is less important than the USA and Japan.

So, Sony won easily 3 out of the 4 last generations, They screwed up really hard last gen, and still won in Europe and finished ahead of the Xbox 360 WW. They are currently killing the competition in Europe, winning in US and will surely win in Japan.

I don't even understand how you can talk about "tough spot"....

MS getting the USA isn't quite the same this gen as the previous gen

Xbox1 might be leading by 200k at christmas in the states but it was 18m up last gen