I believe Sony's main problem this generation, is they overestimated a few things:

They overestimated the demand for HD movies.
They overestimated the power of their brand name.
They overestimated how much people would be willing to pay for a console.
They overestimated the time it would take for the XBOX 360 to come out.
They overestimated the graphical difference between PS3 and 360.

I believe Microsoft is proving that they have some brains behind their gaming division. Sure, releasing the 360 after 4 years kinda pissed some fans off, who were thinking the XBOX would be supported for another year. But it gave Microsoft an 8 million install base advantage, and forced Sony to release a console, and soon. They realized "Sony released the PS2 a year before we released XBOX, and so Sony sold more consoles. So what if the tables were turned?"

And so, Microsoft turned the tables on Sony, and forced them into a corner. What do you guys think about this?

It is possible that they might only lose that much, if they built most of their PS3s last year. It depends on the holidays, really. I would guesstimate it would still end up being higher than 500 mil though.

It is possible that the german guy meant "weekly sales" will surpass the 360. As in, november 2 - november 9, PS3 sells 100k and 360 sells 90k. PS3 briefly passed the 360 with worldwide sales, during the Europe launch. But to say that the PS3 will sell 9 million consoles (to match 360s 12 mil or so by years end) in 7 months is pretty ludicrous, with the popularity of Halo 3 and the like.

1. nope, theres a format war sales wont be huge untill its over (soon enouth)
2. setting sales records in a few nations ? selling a $600 one 1 great game and brand name alone.
3. will see if that true when some elite software is out.
4. ehh nope, thye delayed the PS3.
5. lehh nope, FF13 or Uncharted maybe.

Ms brains

Launch early with defective hardware.
Screw over early adopters by releasing "elite" a year later.
Screw over devlopers by making so many differant 360s, do the develop for the hdmi 120gig hdd or the Core?

 No get you names right, idiot Jack Trenton said that.

 Phil usually has to smooth over what ever that fool says. 

 Only if Jack Trento was the Sony exec who thought $600 was a mistake.

The key thing guys, is that the PS3 has not yet "warmed" up. It won't be until the end of this year, when the PS3 actually has some "quality" titles out - that we will have a much better idea of how this generation will go.

I think its more and more obvious that Sony should have launched later. The PSP & PS2 are selling well enough to have kept them going for another 12 months. Extra time would have given Sony time to work on online (launch with HOME?), work on games (launch with LAIR, Uncharted, Heavenly, Killzone, etc..), work on cost-cutting (launch ALL units with no emotion chip, perfect backwards compat, cheaper components) and launch with more units.

It would have saved them heaps of bad publicity and angst, and they actually would have had an excellent launch and made up the (extra) gap in no time at all (i.e. imagine a worldwide launch in October this year - with GTA4 as launch title, etc..).

There is a more than reasonable chance that sales could jump 2-4x once they actually release ALL their quality games (for this year) - which would bring them in line with Wii sales at least. And then its game on.

LOL shams: same thing could be said about the wii that it hasn't yet "warmed" up. All we really got from nintendo is jsut zelda port from gamecube, and a few decent 3rd party games plus alot of lame quick cash in ports.

Oh, I agree completely ;)

That's what makes the Wii sort of scary - we have only seen a small fraction of what it is capable of.

Even if the PS3 does gain speed - I don't believe it can catch the Wii. I think the #1 position this generation is sealed, and the ball is in Sony's court to see if they can meet/match the 360 - and whether they can actually put up a fight against the Wii (or whether it ends up as a PSP vs DS battle in the console space).

EDIT - just trying to be positive towards the PS3 (and all consoles actually)...

It may have been better for Sony to delay their launch even further, but there is no way they could give MS a 2 year head start. And to everyone that thinks a couple games are going to drastically increase sales and sustain those new levels, that just won't happen. There are small bumps but the individual games don't effect too much. Halo 3 will not help MS with sales too much. That game targets all of their current customers. Most people that want Halo already have a 360 and several other FPS games alread, imo. Home will not help PS3 sell better. Asside from the .0001% of gamers that come to gaming forums, the rest of the people out there don't know about it, and if they did wouldn't care about it. Brawl and Galaxies may only bump Wii sales slightly, if at all, since it is still supply constrained and likely will be until next year. PS3 doesnt have any time to "warm up". They cant get outsold by about 800k/month (while Nintendo is still upping shippments) until 2009, then magically come out with a couple games and start selling well, by then it wont matter, and those killer games that are 3rd party will be on the 360, Wii, or both anyway.

 1. your right individual games wont but the fact there will be more games out that will give people more reasons to buy the console. The face theres over 20 games that are definitely looking great, and the fact Sony seems to have a good showing of PS3 titles for E3 this year, there will be more gamers whiling to buy.

 2. of course Halo 3 will sell a ton of 360s as long as it lives up to its name which a lot of people are having more fun with in the Warhawk Beta then Halo 3 Beta. 

 3. 70% of the USA have then internet, 70% of that have High-Speed internet. Most gamers know what IGN and Gamespot is. I think your under-estimating Home. It will be a major selling point. 

4. Just like Halo 3, as long as these don't end up being complete disappointments then they will sell consoles due they are established franchises.