This very good news. For most of the year things were looking bad for the 360. It was easy to think it may not even match the sales it had in 2007. Now with a price cut that seems to have shown the market the 360 is more than just a game machine, I think the mass market have found a new love in the system. Some may look at this as bad news for Sony, but I look at it as good news for HD gaming. Both platforms are selling very well. The only reason they don't look spectacular is due to the stupid amount of Wii's selling.

Note:

I just want to bring up the fact that I was expecting the PS3 to do a little bit better than it has done this year, but a lot of factors have made me glad things are the way they are. Like most people in the industry I was highly expecting to see the PS3 hit the $299 price point this year, and I think we would have seen a much differant holiday had this been possible. Unfortinatly after seeing Sonys Q2 earnings results I knew things were not going to be so rosie this year, and I knew Sony had to focus on making money.

Some have said they should have taken the loses this holiday by moving to a lowrer price point, but in reality there comes a point when companies, and people just have to say enough is enough. I comend Sony for admiting defeat for now, and understanding that it is not worth going under trying to make a platform number one. So even though 360 has now passed PS3 for the year all is not doom and gloom. Sony has made a good decision to focus on software and profits. It will be very important that they continue this idea throught the rest of the generation. People will pay $400 for a console if it has the software and services they want, and I think that is the direction Sony is going to take it.

im with you altough ps3 was on a rampage when mgs4 came out........but not anymore with gears 2 taking its place.

it is great number, maybe end of dec, the differences will be almost 1 mil

Who was it that predicted this first?

Was it squilliam?

I don't remember anyone elses predictions before mine *under the same circumstances*. Maybe it was me, but I don't like to blow my own trumpet really.

 Did you even predict this? I remember it as

X360 Q3+Q4 will > Ps3 Q3+Q4

As the Ps3 > the X360 by 1.4M in Q1+Q2, that means you didn't really predict this.  (No offense though, I thought you a fool when you made the prediction originally).

Microsofts actions were the easy ones to judge. I knew their best bet was to take action towards the end of the year where the impact will be the strongest. They stated that they were aiming for 2nd this generation and I believed them. So it was easy to predict they would move, and strongly at this time. I almost wrote into my prediction that they would price the Arcade at $200, but I removed it because I thought it was too controversial!

Sony were always going to be the hard ones to judge, given the financial situation they were under back then I figured into my prediction that they wouldn't cut the price towards the end of 2008, it didn't make sense to me. I thought their best bet was to wait until 2009 before cutting the price so I figured that any Microsoft movement would reverse the trend and give Microsoft a win.

Now I didn't expect Microsoft to cut the price in both Europe and North America. My idea was that Microsoft would be > Sony in North America and the gap would be closer, but in Sonys favour in Europe and that would give Microsoft the overall win ~400k consoles.

P.S im currently working through a tentative prediction for Q3/Q4 2009, but its hard as there are so many factors to consider coming into next year.

M$ in red shorts, Sony in black.