Microsoft have stated that their goals are to beat the PS3 and keep it in 3rd place. That was one of the main reasons why I predicted that the Xbox 360 did outsell the PS3 last two quarters overall. Unlike SCE they are willing and able to sacrafice profit to achieve the long term mission. Their main aim is to get people using their online service "Live" and it does seem to be working. It seems to be extremely profitable and they have other ventures going online soon which could expand their marketability even further.

SCE is in a different position, I would say that any profit from SCE will likely be used to steady the rocked ship which is the Sony corporate empire. They will not dole out price-cuts like candy, only when circumstances allow it and I do not forsee them dipping into heavily unprofitable territory in hardware for the rest of the generation.

You see, long term Microsoft is in a more profitable position with the Xbox 360 and Live than Sony is with Blu Ray and the PS3. The difference between the two is that Live is incredibly profitable, but didn't cost them much at all to implement. They also get the majority of the profit to keep for themselves whilst Blu Ray profits have to be shared amongst dozens of companies (Microsoft included). Microsoft can use profits from Xbox Live to subsidise the hardware, whereas Sony up to this point cannot do the same.

Squilliam, do you see the PS3 selling in the 45-55 million range by the end of 2012?

      With the 360 being put out to pasture in the next couple of years, its sales will become negligible much as the regular DS's sales are now in Japan (even finishing with less than the PS3) last week; however, since neither the Wii HD (will be exactly the same as Wii 1 except for the fact it can output graphics in HD) and Wii2 (will be only about as powerful as 360 and PS3) will be significantly any more powerful than the PS3, the PS3's sales will continue for a far longer time than the 360's as Microsoft puts their game development dollars into their next console which will have Gears 3 as a launch game guaranteeing that the system will be out in the next three years.

MS won this generation and i am pretty happy about this!!!!

The HD race is over...

      Why would someone be happy about it?  Even if true it isn't like they bring very much to the gaming table (a couple of average games one of whose developer is leaving to do other things after they finish up their current project, a bunch of mediocre games) and certainly nothing as good as what we have seen on either PSX or PS2.

8-12 Million range per year on average for the next 3 years? EASY!

This generation has expanded so much, its hard to say when the rate of sales will drop in any apreciable quantities.

With the 360 being put out to pasture in the next couple of years, its sales will become negligible much as the regular DS's sales are now in Japan (even finishing with less than the PS3) last week; however, since neither the Wii HD (will be exactly the same as Wii 1 except for the fact it can output graphics in HD) and Wii2 (will be only about as powerful as 360 and PS3) will be significantly any more powerful than the PS3, the PS3's sales will continue for a far longer time than the 360's as Microsoft puts their game development dollars into their next console which will have Gears 3 as a launch game guaranteeing that the system will be out in the next three years.

Yes, im sure the Xbox 360 Slim's release will put a real dampener on the sales of the current Xbox 360 model. Btw, you keep stating that Gears 3 will be a launch game, yet its not even assured that it will be Xbox exclusive! Also it came out a year after the launch of the current Xbox 360 so really... Theres no past precedent and theres no assured future and yet you keep repeating yourself time and again based on what? I don't know what the next Xbox will look like, what markets it will target nor whether or not they will utilise the same or a different control scheme. I don't even know when they intend to release it, but one thing I do know is this: They will keep the Xbox 360 on the market well after they release the Xbox 720 or whatever. Microsoft doesn't have much in the way of game development studios, and besides anything else the only game Sony has thats worth anything significantly more than 3rd party releases is Gran Turismo, so really not a significant difference.

     You must not know about Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, Level 5, the fact that Sega is putting their exclusives on the PS3.  Hideo Kojima's Next Project, God of War, Trico, FF Versus XIII, and the fact that Kingdom Hearts 3 could still wind up on PS3.

The game is far from over and ps3 still has a good chance of catching up though i have a couple view points on it.

A) At this point if 360 reaches a gap of 9 - 10 million over ps3 this is still retainable by PS3 though i wonder if by the time ps3 outsells the 360 it will be irrelevant since the next gen is beginning

B) At this point does it really matter? Microsoft has completly accomplished what it set out to do and that was to keep the playstation brand from becoming THE media center for the household. Remember the xbox exists because Micrsosoft feared a challenge to computers (and thus windows) as the homes media hub. Microsoft (and Nintendo) have both successfully brought down the behemouth that was the Playstation brand. Playstation is still very powerful but if anyone really thinks that the ps3 has the brand name and power of the ps2 are kidding themselves

and your still forgetting that the ps3 doesn't move software like the 360.  Remember how Resistance 2, LBP, MGS4, and others were going to destroy the xbox? look at the attatch rate.  Sure Sony has a great exsclusive lineup on the way but the question is will it REALLY make an impact?  If theres one thing i've learned this gen the "Big Hitters" have not moved systems at all.  Look at GTA4.  In fact the only 2 big exsclusives i can think of that really pushed hardware on the HD consoles were Halo 3 and MGS4