Agreed with stickball.

MS came back with a vengence from the second half of the year on. Well, if this rumour is true, 2009 will also be another battleground year.

All in all, Sony managed to make this year a virtual tie.

This being 360s peak year, it's not that hot, and this not being PS3s peak year (likely, next year) this is good.

I don't think this is the 360's peak year. A lot of people thought 2007 was already and that there was no way 2008 could compare and it turned out to be a pretty strong year. We are slowly getting a feel for the games that are coming out for the 360 and it is building a strong line up. I agree with Microsoft coming back strongly not making this the year of the PS3, but a tie but I think that 2009 will be just as strong for both the consoles.

Are those really rumors?  Those seem like things that are bound to happen.  The only interesting information there is LBP on PSP.

One of those is akin to me saying that there is a rumor that the world's population will increase next year.

Bravo MS, I am really impressed how well they are doing this Gen.

What will also be different this year is that at this time last year WW the PS3 was building momentum for the 1st half of 2008 with the price drop. This year that is totally different. The 360 will enter 2009 with all of the momentum and really not until a PS3 price drop will there be any chance of that changing.

MS was in the position this year to play defense and make there moves when they really needed to rather then being forced to. MS will able to keep 360 prices at nearly launch levels until September with the PS3 really just denting the 360 WW lead. With the growing lead the 360 has and which should grow until the PS3 drops in price MS can choose just the right time to counter with a price adjustment of thier own.

With 2-3 holiday seasons before the next consoles start launching the publishers are making thier next 2 years of development plans now. That means the 360 will be prominent in there plans and the PS3 will be 2nd tier for most of them producing HD content.

Yeah, I think the OP is pretty much undisputable. And in 4 pages of comments so far there have only been 2 or 3 delusional PS3 fanboy statements. There's simply not much for them to say at this point.

What I think is unfortunate is that nobody realized that the 360 already had a great HD video library through Marketplace and that it was worlds better than what Netflix is currently offering as streaming content. I did the 2 week trial, and I am NOT impressed by the Netflix selection so far. The good thing is that the video Marketplace doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Anyway, no matter how you slice it, the PS3 took a back seat again this year. MGS4 was a bright spot, LBP wasn't as big of a deal as everyone thought it would be, Resistance 2 came and went with not much fanfare. Everyone is already making the "look what PS3 has coming NEXT year" posts, but this happens every single year and I'll believe it when I see it.

The only patterns we have to go by from the past are:

--The next year on the calendar is always hailed as "the year of the PS3".

--Microsoft always seems to have a plan up their sleeves to combat all the big name PS3 releases with previously unannounced 360 titles.

--According to VGChartz, PS3 is losing ground on the 360, not gaining it. The momentum it gained after MGS4 seems to have ground to a halt.

--Price cuts work, and we will see true evidence of this in the coming weeks.

All in all, the more time Sony takes to get their act together, the more time MS has to strengthen their numbers and build up the user base. I think it would take a really groundbreaking AND well selling title in 2009 for Sony to truly get their mojo back. Let's face facts: Sony were gods among men in the last gen with the PS2 destroying all other competitors. This gen, Sony is fighting for 2nd and not gaining any ground. They are not, after all, infallible or invincible to competition as we are all witnessing now.

I completly agree with the above two postings by Donicinator and Thx1139.

Microsoft will start 2009 with an incredible momentum - outselling the PS3 by 50% - 100% every week.

Sony's only move should have been a $100 price cut, but they just cannot do it. This would translate to an additional $1B in loses for the company and they just lack the deep pockets of Microsoft to take on such loses.

Moreover - they will never be able to recover these loses. Never. Just no such prospects.

So at this point Sony must focus on profitability and not on market share. This means keeping high prices, no paying for exclusives, limiting marketing and just cutting down costs across the board (goodby Home?).

It will take Sony about a year to get to a point where a price cut might even be considered. This is a year that Microsoft must use to leave them in dust. Microsoft should aim at selling 13M units next year and limit Sony to no more than 8M. The gap between the two systems will grow to 12M units and it will be easier for Microsoft to secure a complete support from all of the studios and reduce support for the PS3.

With such a small PS3 install base Sony will be forced to restructure its gaming division and studios that got bloated as they were designed to serve the 100M+ PS2 installed base. With small production volumes their HW cost structure will remain high making the prospects of a price cut even deemer.

Overall, it is hard to see how Sony can recover from Microsoft's move. Good game Microsoft.

give kudos to microsoft, but dont be happy yourself. you should never love the company, because all they want is your money. the same with sony and everyone else.

2006, AND 2008? Wow, the 360 has many peak years. Can't wait for end of '09 being ANOTHER of 360s peak years.

Well I hope Sony is to cut the prices of the PS3 by Spring, because by Fall Microsoft will have another price drop/and/or pack in to make it even cheaper :P

Sony is screwed either way because the 720 will be out before the PS4. At least if they follow their 10 year plan :P