wii already won

If you make up things like this then you have to face the implications of your statement. Ok, let's go with your model. Then:

1) Last gen Gamecube WHIPPED Xbox

2) My guess is that the Dreamcast came close to beating Xbox too!!! (You could say it lost with less)

3) Viewing a victory like that undermines Microsoft's long-term strategy.

For me the contest is measured in terms of market share percentage. If a company is willing to lose money on the product that's their problem. The console still finishes in the same place regardless.

You know the Wii is also there? i don't think PS3 can outsell the Wii, but if it does, this would be the sweetest victory of all 3 gens for Sony, but i don't think they can pull it off...

I want the PS3 to beat the 360, but that's just a combination of not liking MS (not the cliche way), and having a bet with some friends, and friends of those friends (everyone put 20 bucks to one of the HD consoles, and the proportion as of now is 32-11 (75%-25%) to the 360, so if i win i make good money) so my money is REALLY on the PS3...

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Answering to the OP, console wars are not new my friend, i was on the 1st major console war ever, half my neighbors with a Genesis, half of us with a SNES (i later got a Genesis also, people called my double-face jejejeje), and even when the SNES won, Sega fundamentalists called a win for Genesis putting the SNES in trouble in America and Europe, having the "coolest" mascot (i still want to build a time machine to go to the past and show people the Wii with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Super Smash Bros. Brawl)... I also remember what people said about the N64 "Nintendo won because it has Ocarina of Time, Mario 64 and Goldeneye, those 3 games are better than any PS1 game", and later with the Gamecube "Nintendo still wins because it made almost the same profit as the PS2", that's the nature, and it's fun, as long as it doesn't get ugly...

People seem to misunderstand what the question was. The 360 sold about 5m prior to the PS3 and Wii being released on the market. So..

If PS3 closed the gap to 4m and the Generation ended. Would fanboys agree that;
A) 360 got second place because of more total sales than PS3
B) PS3 got second place because it closed the gap and more from what the 360 sold its first year solo on the market.

..or would it be;
C) End of the world as we know it since they would argue their cause (A or B) til they'd drop dead.

^ A)

I agree, whichever comes second comes second, third comes third and 1st comes 1st...

You don't see threads about "PS1 had a head start", "PS2 had a head start", and if people want to bring that to the table, i have 2 words for them: "SNES" and "Wii", both of them entered late, one of them won the gen and the other one is the projected winner of this gen...

But when do we actually have the end of the generation?

When ONE next gen console is out, or when all 3 next gen consoles are out?

That is the key question Carl. Because someone can jump the gun again and start the next gen before the others.....And people will try to discredit any sales past that point which makes no sense.

No one asked Sony to launch the ps3 one year after the X360...for this generation, if X360 ends with more sales than the PS3, it is the winner out of the two. If we speak of a true success clearly X360 is not a so clear winner with a year of advantage, but still the 2nd console of this gen (as of now).

The real question is: if Sony choses to follow their 10-years-plan for the PS3, and it ends selling something near 70m (probably more than X360 will sell if a Xbox720 comes out) we should consider the winner the X360 or the ps3? How strange is life! XD

Launching early/late is PART OF THE STRATEGY!!!

a)Launch 1st and have a headstart
b)Launch 2nd and have a technologically superior console

Anyone who thinks the time of launch should be taken into account loses all my respect, HOWEVER IF someone launches between two generations that'll disrupt the whole console wars since that 'middle-generation' console would then be competing with two gens at once. In that case an argument could be made I guess.