I think Sony has done just that. For most of the year I thought the PS3 would at some point pass 360, but after Sony's 2nd quarter results I began to relize it was not very important.

Sony has lost way to much money on this system and the time has come were they have just had to say enough. They could have easly given the system another $50 dollar cut and stayed in the game this holiday, but that would have ment bad news for there revenue and profits. So instead they have did what matters most and decided to let the people that want PS3 buy one at a price that they can afford, and for those that are not as interested they are making wait.

If you really look at the numbers PS3 sales are not all that bad. For a third place system the unit is selling exetionally well. This continued success along with the already decent sized userbase garentees Sony third party support for the rest of the generation, and that is the most important thing in this industry. So from here on out Sony, and its fans need to look at what can be done to make back that 3 Billion in losses.

Personally I would like to see Sony stay steady at this $399 price point for as long as possible. I feel that next years big exclusives early on will allow them to stay respectable for the first half of the year. With the growth of Blu-ray over the next few weeks I believe that it will only grow as a selling point for people looking at both a games console and a Blu-ray player. These reasons along with a few other factors make me feel the PS3 can sustain a decent amount of sales, and can keep Sony from having to drop the price.By next fall Sony should finally be in a poistion were they can sell the hardware at less and continue to make a profit. With the reduction in chip sizes, and the possability of a smaller fourm factor the games devision should be in good shape.

For the time being, it is essential that SCE makes a profit. As fans we should be more interested in that at this point in time. Profit means that they can continue to make the games we love while also allowing for money to be put into R&D for the PS4. As it stands PS3 will easly pass the 30m mark and surly in time it will hit 40 and mabye even 50M. Yeah this is not anywhere close to what we expect from the Playstation brand, but it is more than enough for Sony to have a successful biusness as long as they start to focus on profit. Maybe next gen we can bring Playstation back to the defacto gaming platform, but for the rest of the current one the survival of Sony's gaming unit is the most important piece of the pie.

The ps3 may end up third, and if it does, you gotta admit it will have been the best third place console ever.

Though the GameCube comes close because it had two Zelda titles.  :)

yes i agree the dreamcast was dead last and the games on there are just amazing and still talked about, the gamceube was amzing as well and it had pikmin and eternal darkness as well.

The Dreamcast probably had the biggest following of all the last place runners up, with limited support still around today.

Never bought one, but in retrospect, it did have its fair share of excellent games. Unfortunately, it was also the final nail in Sega's coffin as a console manufacturer after three previous misses in a row (Sega CD, 32X, Saturn).

The PS brand on the other hand will most likely continue to live on for as long as Sony exists.

The GC was almost exclusively about all the Nintendo franchise games most have been playing since they were kids. Even dead last, it still had a built in user base.

If MS continues to support the 360, which is what it's looking like (for probably another 3 years at minimum), it seems a lot less likely that the PS3 will suddenly begin to eclipse it in sales, even at a $299 entry price point.

But, a long as the third party soft support continues, worthy releases from SCE studios keep coming, and Sony continues to add functionality through firmware updates, the PS3 will most definitely be around long enough to see a SFF model and even a $199 price point in the distant future.

In other words, I'm willing to bet the PS3 will stay in production for about ten years as claimed, regardless of when Sony releases their next gen console.

So what's the downside of being third? To gamers, so far absolutely nothing.

To Sony, it means less revenue generated as well as greater losses on initial investment until manufacturing costs can be lowered to the point of profitability (and even then, nominal profits are unlikely to offset losses incurred at that point unless they make a small profit on say, 100 million units with soft sales to match).

As long as strong soft support continues, there is no drawback considering the PS3 is very likely to stay in production for the duration of its intended life span.

What is the usual result of coming in last? Typically early termination (GC, DC) and in the instance of the Xbox, even second place with major losses, was enough for MS to simply do a complete reboot and abandon the original platform.

Unless you feel early termination will be the result of Sony's current market position, then there is no real downside.

Wow so you bought the PS3 not to enjoy, but to boost up sales? I must have bought the PS3 for the wrong reasons.

I've enjoyed mine ever sense I bought it on December 21st, 2007

I bought the first one I saw on shelves 3 Jan 2007 and I've liked the platform ever since. All the updates to PSN and the OS have continued to address the shortcomings and add additional functionality while the library has grown enough to handle most of my gaming needs, even though I've bought every platform this generation.

I even liked it enough to buy a second, which is something I haven't done for a console since the PS1.

Meh.

Just reminds me of January - June 2007.  Remember back then?  All the PS3 doom threads?  That ended for a full 16 months, and now we're back again.  Natural curve.  PS3's up to bat after the year is over though, could be a game changer.

True, but it's now the holiday season where all consoles should be selling significantly more units than normal and the PS3 is the only one not showing the traditional seasonal bump in sales.

We'll see after this week's Black Friday totals come up.

Right now it's looking like the PS3 won't see another significant bump in sales until the price is dropped within the comfort zone of the next rung of consumers.

As for the PS3 doom predictions: won't happen. It's already too late for the PS3 to die a premature death.

That was not a typo. Sony will continue to back the PS3, even if their SCE division is eventually scaled back or it continues to focus on meeting profitability at the cost of overall market share and total revenue.