I wasn't assuming the Wii would have it priced raised since most sane people agree that it's the right price; the issue is the PS3's price so that is the price that would be affected.

And again, at launch what did the PS3 offer and what did the Wii offer?

From the box alone the Wii offered a very new way of playing, the Nintendo name, and a game.  The PS3 offered the PS3 name (everyone knew the SIXAXIS was a joke). 

We could argue about the libraries but it's just easier to assume they're equal.  Personally, I think the Wii had a stellar launch library, probably one of the best in a good while, but that is merely an opinion thing and that's why it should be left out.

@Atma998: It was a valid comparision. Even with a same pricepoint, Civic would still sell more. It's more practical and consumes less. Also, things as tires would be a lot cheaper.

So, it's not about price, but what both cars offer.

This thread is important to analise what can be made next gen, not only for sony, but for the others.
I think they could have done with a special sku with bluray, and a made a dettachable drive, so you could upgrade the lesser sku aftewards to a bluray player. ANdd include BC in every PS3. If they could do that and sell it at $399 at least, they would be at 24-26mln units by now. If they launched Any famous game at the beggining, than they would be at 35-38, if only because of the ps2 owners upgrading their systems. Price DO matters in this case. I only did changed mine because of the price drop, and I´m still pissed about the BC.

And only 5 million behind the 360, that's amazing.

No. What happened was that the 360 had a lot of street cred when it was released due to both Halo and the scarcity of the 360 at launch. Nintendo saw what this scarcity allowed Microsoft to do to generate cred on their console and used it to their advantage to generate hype for the Wii.

However, now that people have seen what the 360 was about and the fact that quite a few of its games (particularly more recent ones) including Halo3 (at least as far as the first person part of the game was concerned) failed to live up to the hype and since more and more people have the Wii and are capable of seeing its shortcomings in graphics and game library -- particularly 3rd part games which are not as good and will continue for the rest of this generation to be inferior to the PS3 and 360 versions in terms of the wow factor that they have the ability to generate due to the Wii's technological limitations; rather than just being able to hear about the Wii from coworkers and thinking that it is the best thing since buttered toast while being unable to see them for themselves in stores in order to see what it is really all about --  both the 360 and Wii are going to cool off considerably while the PS3 just gains more and more popularity which is going to take it over the top.  The PS3 is going to have a beautiful comeback.

Considering it started 5 million behind I don't consider it that amazing.

Okay TWRoO, what about the fact that the 360's lead over the PS3 was over 1 million in Others at the start of this year, was down to 750,000 following the release of the European version of GTA IV which was more popular across the pond than the 360 version even though the 360 was selling at about the same price as the Wii there at the time, and now two months after the release of Metal Gear Solid 4, the 360's lead in others is down to 430,000 units?

If Sony did anything wrong with the PS3, it was the timing. Too late versus the XBox 360, too early to take advantage of the HD market, and released to compete against the only console truly in touch with the market. That being said, yes it did stumble out the gates, but Sony has learned to roll with it and are making much wiser decisions at this stage in the race. This has probably been a very healthy learning experience for those folks and everyone paying attention to the current console generation, so I'm sure we'll see some amazing tech from Sony, MS and Nintendo alike next round. Come to think of it, MS and Nintendo learned a lot over the past couple years as well.

@OP - To answer question1 - If the PS3 was as cheap as the Wii, it wouldn't have a Blu Ray or as fast processing power/graphical capability. If the Wii was as expensive as the PS3, it'd support HD, have a large HD, probably Wireless N support too.

So its hard to answer your question. There's a reason they are priced as they are.

In regards to question 2 - I think it'd be quite a bit closer betwen PS3 and XB360. I forget what the difference of XB360s sold for that year before PS3 and Wii were launched was. The year definitely did give MS the early momentum.

I want some McDonald's apple pies. MMM. Tasty.

 You got a point! But I don't think PS3 is the Ferrari of consoles