not hard when your competition shoots themselves in the feet.

very reminiscent of when Nintendo & Sega did the same thing with N64 & Saturn leading to PS1 domination.

It's a mistake to think the phone and console markets are comparable. The consumers of these products have different characteristics and look for different things on the product.

A phone is a device to make calls, runs apps and fotograph/film.

A console is a technologically advanced device meant to run the latest games.

They satisfy completely different needs.

Now... the console market consumer invests on the console with the promise of games and features. At the end of the cycle, this consumer will weight his satisfaction level when weighing in his/her next purchase. This usually means that in the console market, arrogance get's paid for dearly in the next cycle. This is generally what motivates the sales of the following cycle. Of course, this is a generalisation, but the rule of thumb is that the manufacturer needs to satisfy the consumer across multiple years to gain consumer trust. This is also why console wars are always such a big deal. Theres a great deal of consumer investment on his/her purchase decision.

Phones? Alot less investment. It makes calls? It runs the apps i need? All of them do that equally more or less (some better depending on power).

What Sony did right? Supported the ps3 till its last years. They kept their consumers satisfied and generated more desire than the competition on their product.

What microsoft did wrong? Offered a box with features consumers didn't want.

Sony keeps the ps3 audience and recaptured a good deal of the 360 one. 

I do not agree that the PS3 was a major blow to Sony. At worst, I would classify it as a tiny regression. Personally, I liked it more than the PS1 and PS2.

I was actually expecting a reasonable reply as to why that was always the case and not with anyone else at all, but I guess it's fine to expect the same kind of response when someone you clearly don't like has to reply in the same manner each time.

I would love to see the evidence that suggests only Xbox and PC owners claim that exclusives don't matter at all and how the other two somehow don't, but I'm also sure I'm going to be met with another meme response, rather than an actual intellectual discussion that doesn't in any way involve sly digs or downplaying the other two already mentioned sides (like we've already gone through already).

This is pretty much the reason I went from x360 to ps3 and then PS4.

PS3 and 360 ended up even

For that to happen it took Sony being $200 more, launching a year later, and making a machine that's a bitch to program for

It stands to reason that even if they had been even on price and launch and the like, that they would be back in the lead. Nintendo is in a different market at this point so they're not sucking sales away.

Add to that MS trying to take away used games and offline gaming which helped with the launch. Since launch Sony have given more and more quality first party exclusives and without the stench of price and third party difficulty people are taking notice this gen.

Also the thunderous applause and publicity coming out of E3 2013. That was the day that changed the gaming industry. Sony went last and blew the doors off the building with $400 and supporting used games. MS imploded afterwards. Materick said "we have 360 for the vets who can't play offline!" and an amazon poll asking which you would buy after the show was at about 22,000 PS to 1,000 Xbox before being taken down.

They retook the market by fixing their mistakes and making an overall better product. Making one mistake doesn't mean the end of a company, let alone anyone or anything. Mistakes caan be amended. Otherwise Sega would have been out of the market much sooner, and Nintendo would have dropped out.

I came up with the numbers by searching gamerankings for games with at least ten reviews, that scored at 80 or higher. DLC packs, and Sports games are not counted in the totals. If a game was on XB1/PS4 but not on PC then it counted as an exclusive for PS4. The same goes for PC games that were on the XB1, but not PS4 Arkham Knight was counted as an exclusive since it was borderline unplayable on PC.

Here's the list...

PC 2017
Nothing Yet

PC 2016 3 AA or AAA Exclusives. 12 Indies.
Civ VI
Shadow Tactics Blades of the Shogun
Hearts of Iron
Owlboy
Stardew Valley
Pony Island
Planet Coaster
Devil Daggers
Quadrilateral Cowboy
1979 Revolution Black Friday
Duelyst
Zombie Night Terror
Tyranny
That Dragon Cancer
Offworld Trading Company

2015 3 AAA exclusives. 6 Indies.
Pillars of Eternity
Homeworld Remastered Collection
Heroes of the Storm
Undertale
Westerado Double Barrelled
The Bug Butcher
Zenzizenzic
World of Warships

2014 4 AAA exclusives. 8 Indies.
Titanfall
Galactic Civilizations III
Age of Wonders III
Wildstar
Elite Dangerous
Endless Legend
Legend of Grimrock II
Wasteland 2
Broken Age
Sunless Sea
SuperHot
Hearthstone

PS4 2017 4 AA or AAA Exclusives
Nioh
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Yakuza 0
Gravity Rush 2

PS4 2016 9 AA or AAA Exclusives
Uncharted 4
Odin Sphere
Ratchet and Clank
Guilty Gear REVELATOR
Dragon Quest Builders
The Last Guardian
Gravity Rush Remastered
Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X
Rigs: Mechanized Combat League

2015 4 AAA Exclusives
Tearaway Unfolded
Disgaea 5
Arkham Knight
Bloodborne

2014 2 AAA Exclusives
LittleBigPlanet 3
inFamous Second Son

If you can run a game on a mid range gaming PC from 2002, then it is an indie game and not a AA or AAA title.