And it would take a miracle for Xbox to regain its seventh gen glory as been outlined many times. Also, PS5 reaching half of PS2's lifetime sales (11.5M) in Japan does not require a miracle, just a more proactive Sony when it comes to pricing. 

But they downvoted. So even though it could literally be three or four Gold users downvoting for no reason, I am going to assume a large number of users 100% disagree with his opinion that paid games shouldn’t have ads and I’ll be just as correct as the nonsense you used to justify the other nonsense. Somehow this ended up better than you not having receipts at all ?

That's a terrible assumption to have based on the tone of the thread. I'm looking through the comment section from that article and the overall sentiment is mostly negative towards advertisements of any kind.

The majority of people posting in that comment section are against advertisements in F2P games, the upvoted posts are ones against advertisements in F2P games, the other downvoted comment is because they are fine with advertisements in F2P games, so your takeaway from the most downvoted comment, is that everyone actually wants ads in paid games, rather than users disagreeing with his part of the post that is not opposed to having ads in F2P games? You see the trend?

Sounds to me like you need to read the thread better.

If Xbox achieving that is a miracle, then PS5 selling half of PS2 in Japan most definitely qualifies as well.

But if you had equated Xbox's 20m lead in the US (without COD exclusive) to PS5 selling half of PS2's sales, that would have been a fairly good comparison actually. What's laughable is that you compared it to PS5 outselling PS2 in Japan, which is utterly preposterous. 

If you aren't going to bother to mention conditions such as the next three Call of Duty titles being on the PlayStation platform per Jason Schreier, or Microsoft's commitment to keeping Activision Blizzard games multiplatform, you have no grounds to criticize my comparison for lacking context, or complain about any scenario that does not factor in exclusivity, since you won't even bother to factor in official confirmation which I originally considered when making the post. Why do I have to equate for Call of Duty exclusivity but you get to ignore and flat out disregard the mid term future of Call of Duty? 

If you actually done the math, or looked at the sales curve for the seventh generation, you will see why Xbox winning NA by 20M is delirious without Call of Duty exclusivity. There is a much better chance the PS5 sells half of the PS2's lifetime in Japan (11.5M) than Xbox Series X/S winning NA by 20M units (25M+ swing from last gen) without Call of Duty being exclusive. PS4 sold 9.4M units in Japan with Sony leaving tons of sales on the table by not cutting price late in the generation. 

Seriously. Do your own math and give me a breakdown of how Xbox Series X/S can win this generation by 20M units without COD exclusivity. Prove to me that it isn't as preposterous as the PS5 outselling the PS2 in Japan. The Series consoles are currently behind PS5 sales in NA, despite having a cheaper model, while the Xbox 360 with a cheaper model dominated from launch. The Xbox 360 was never outsold by the PS3 yearly in NA like the Series consoles have been outsold by the PS5 in 2020 and 2021. Launch aligned, the Xbox 360 is winning by higher margins, for longer periods, than the Series X/S is currently. Not to mention the PS5 is vastly outpacing the PS3 in NA, despite running into stock issues, which is another major point of comparison that cannot be overlooked.

Xbox having a slightly better chance to achieve Xbox 360 levels of domination in NA, than the PS5 outselling the PS2 in Japan, does not make the comparison lopsided. Both are extremely unlikely scenarios. That's the point of the comparison. 

I think you have been vastly overestimating PlayStation’s brand power and loyalty of customer base in the US this entire thread which is why Xbox returning to its 7th gen heyday seems so outlandish to you. The PS3 had a significantly more diverse and higher quality exclusives library than the Xbox 360, particularly in the second half of its life, and it simply did not matter in the US. American customers are vastly more price sensitive and service oriented than European and Japanese customers, they are extremely fickle, and have shown each and every console generation they will switch brands en masse without a moments hesitation. 

In mid 2005 the idea that the upcoming Xbox 360 would outsell the PS3 in the US lifetime was similarly outlandish, but if there is one thing Xbox and Microsoft really understand it’s the US market and its customers. 

I am not arguing whether or not COD will, in reality, become exclusive.  I would bet that it probably won't, just as I don't believe that the XS will dominate the PS5 to that level in the end.  So your official info doesn't matter to my point, which was always the comparison itself; something you continue to defend and something that I find absurd.  Even if we agree that, no, XS will not top PS5 in the US by 20m, and no, the PS5 will not outsell the PS2 in Japan, that doesn't make it a good comparison, even if the end result is the same.

That's like comparing a second place runner and a 20th place runner against Usain Bolt.  Neither is going to be able to top Bolt for #1, but if the second place runner finished 10 seconds behind and the 20th place runner finished 10 minutes behind, it is highly inaccurate to compare the two's performances, even if they both lose.

So a 20M Xbox Series X/S lead in NA by the end of the generation doesn't seem outlandish to you? As I've pointed out in my other post, there are various things happening to the Series consoles that hasn't happened to the Xbox 360, as well as the PS5 selling significantly better than the PS3, that some people refuse to grasp. One look at the numbers will tell you what is needed for Xbox Series X/S to reclaim seventh generation glory days in NA. Currently it isn't doing enough to entertain that scenario even with the margin it is currently outselling the PS5 at. That's the reality some Xbox fans need to understand and come to terms with.  

Also, regarding the second half of the Xbox 360's lifecycle, you know what else it had that tremendously boosted sales in NA? The Kinect fad. A lightning in the bottle moment for Microsoft that won't easily be replicated.

You mean like how XB stopped trying to build big blockbuster AAA (exclusivity) when they knew they stood no chance against PS?

Does this mean PS shouldn't and couldn't copy Game Pass, the new direction for XB where they excel?

Resistance was another attempt at a Playstation "Halo Killer" that I remember from back in the day; I actually enjoyed the Resistance trilogy quite a bit personally, but its fair to say it never managed to reach the same ballpark as Halo.

At any rate, I think trying to specifically "kill" a specific franchise is usually a bad strategy. Both Sony and MS are better off when they do their own thing instead of trying to copy each other's successes.

And while PS5 will still win this generation, MS is definitely in a position to win back significant marketshare if they play their cards right.