@ happy squrriel-

How do you figure there's only 3 to 4 years left of sales for PS3? As long as TV's are sticking around 1080p as their defining resolution for a good amount of time the PS3 will be a valuable product that will sell.

PS2 still selling today shows that the PS3 can not only attain its 10 year goal, but do it quite easily. Especially given the fact the PS3 is much more prepared for the future than the PS2 ever was.

The hardware might be great, but as long as third party publishers have limited resources and need to allocate those resources in a way to provide healthy profits to their investors a trailing console will have difficulty getting support late in a generation ... After all, look at how the PSP's hardware is still very good for any portable game any developer would consider creating and yet fewer and fewer games are being created for it so that the publishers can focus on the far less powerful Nintendo DS.

Look at it this way, in 2010/2011 we will (probably) see the begining of a new handheld generation and in 2011/2012 we will see the begining of a new home console generation. When publishers have to allocate resources to the PC, XBox 720, Wii HD, Nintendo DS Advanced, PSP2, Wii, and Nintendo DS do you really think they're going to have several teams of 50+ developers to continue to support a platform with ~40 Million units sold?

if the media hate towards the ps3 continiues then it will be difficult for sony to make a comeback. With the ps2 they had everyones support, this gen they don't.

Sony needs to start delivering products and stop the delays!

The negatives aside, this year does look better with known sequels being released (hopefully), a much awaited price drop and regardless of what people may say, successful revenues from microtransactions in home.

As mentioned on a thread last year and n4g, according to the researcher, over 40% of ps2 owners have not made the next gen leap. It is safe to assume, as the price drops, the more ps2 users will begin to purchase a ps3. Had they wanted a 360 or a Wii, they would have already made the next gen leap.

As for the lack of 3rd parties, it is nowhere near as bad as the lack of support which was shown to the n64, gamecube and original xbox. That goes without say.

No doubt Sony isn't it best shape, but hardly is it the worst form. To succeed they need to stop bragging and start delivering. Actions speak louder then words. Market right, deliver ontime and make better use of the 6axis controller. It is a horrible waste. If early release games such as ms and heavenly sword can make good use of it, then current release and upcoming games should have it mastered to perfection.

If Sony plays their cards right, they can secure 2nd place with ease. 360 even at half price is finding it difficult to outsell a console twice in price with a smaller library of games. Reverse the price on both consoles and who on this site would doubt that ps3 would have raced ahead! Do take into consideration, 5.5 million 360's was the approximate lead when the ps3 was released in japan and America!

Don't think Sony will pull this though.

I wonder if Nintendo fans thought the same thing with the N64. "OoT will boost sales."

You really can't make that kind of assumption ...

Over 80% of gamers in the previous generation bought their console for $200 (US) or less, and over 75% of PS2 owners bought their console for $200 or less. While we don't have any data to support it, I think that it is a fairly safe assumption that almost all ofthe 25% of people who bought PS2 for more than $200 have already bought a system this generation ...

Although we can't say for sure, I would expect that the percentage of gamers who would buy a console for $300 when they were unwilling to spend more than $200 for the previous generation console (and they have the option of buying a similar console for a price they are more used to paying) is pretty small.

I don't think so ...

Back before (about) 1999 too few people had access to enough sales information to really understand the state of their console, and most fans of particular consoles estimated their popularity primarily based on personal experience. I found it a little shocking before the Dreamcast was released when I found out how much more popular the Playstation was being that my personal experience had demonstrated that the Playstation was remarkably unpopular.

And you know what's the funniest bit? outside these forums, most people are still like that, they buy their wiis without any concern, they just buy it because some friend or family member has it and they had a great time at the last party, they don't know/don't care if it has the best graphics, they don't know/don't care if there are some awesome "core" games on wiips360.

We know all this because we want to know and for some reason, we care. Seriously, i think I was happier when i though N64 was a big hit because me and most of my friends had a blast playing mario kart...

Nintendo has gone from worst to first in consecutive console releases, with Sony doing exactly the opposite this generation. A closer look at collective data released by the NPD Group, the official tracker of U.S. video game sales, reveals the stark reversal of roles.

Based on the first 26 months of availability, the Wii is on its way to becoming the best-selling console of all time, a title currently held by the PlayStation 2, which has sold more than 50 million units in America and an estimated 140 million worldwide. In just over two years, the Wii outsold the PS2’s comparable initial sales by 10 percent, according to the NPD. That is, in the first 26 months of the Wii, Nintendo sold 17.5 million Wiis while Sony sold 15.9 million PS2s in the U.S. in the first 26 months of sales. If the sales pattern holds, we expect Nintendo to sell 55 million Wiis in America by 2014 and 154 million units worldwide.

By comparison, the PS3 sold 6.79 million units in the U.S. during the same initial 26-month period, compared to 6.75 million GameCubes, which finished a distant third last generation and forced Nintendo to rethink how it sold video games. Microsoft, for its part, sold 9.2 million Xbox 360s in the U.S. in its first 26 months, trailing Nintendo in a faraway second by a margin of 2 to 1 — the same position the company held last generation. But Microsoft has improved its fortunes: its latest machine sells 18 percent faster than its predecessor, according to NPD figures, and even turned a profit, something the original Xbox never did.

Worldwide numbers will likely follow the same pattern — as it did last generation — but reliable numbers are hard to come by.

While good news for Nintendo, all is not lost for Sony. In the previous generation, the GameCube was profitable for Nintendo, even if it failed to meet expectations. And it was home to dozens of well-received games. What’s more, the PS 3’s graphics are so good that the machine is expected to have a longer shelf life than the GameCube. Lastly, it is quite possible that Sony will have a profitable generation with the PS 3, since the game audience as a whole is much bigger now than in past generations. That means this larger audience can sustain three profitable console companies.

But the chances of the PS3 making any kind of comeback are becoming increasingly remote, if not impossible, because — let’s face it — numbers don’t lie.

This is the first VentureBeat story by Blake Snow, a freelance writer covering video games. You can see his bio here.

This is the only answer you need

Thats what people said about MGS4 & the last PS3 pricecut.....

nice