Sales are not the only factor of console wars. Yes, Wii is winning in sales but they are losing in almost everything else.

PS2 is the only console who won on all factors

In this world, Wii is winning by a large margin of a cople millions.

For some people, third-party are Konami, Activision, Capcom and Square-Enix. For them, Wii don't sell third-party software. But they are wrong. Wii sells a lot more third-party software than the others and "others" don't resume to Konami, Activison, Capcom and Square-Enix.

Generation will end something like this...

1a MS
1b Sony
2 Wii

I think Nintendo will enter release a new console generation before they have a chance to win this one. I don't think they ever inteded Wii to be a 10 year console like Sony and MS are talking.

1a and 1b could be the other way around, but in the end it will be indistinguishable who sold more. Nor will it matter.

This creates a problem in

Sony and Microsoft will not be able to make their consoles last 10 years. That is a pipe-dream. If they care about effectively implementing motion controls, they'll have to release something new (though not immediately. Another 2 years or so), and even if they don't, they're going to want to put out some sort of new console to be able to try and 1up whatever Nintendo is releasing next (since the obvious course is for Nintendo to make something with PS360 capabilities, then they would have all the cards stacked on their end)

Still considering both sony and microsoft is releasing some form of motion sensing peripheral shows that they're trying to to extend its life. Usually if this was any other generation of consoles we would have seen a protoype of the next generation from all the console manufacturers.

I still say though Ps2 is going to out live even the next generation.

No Playstation has ever had the best first party, that's one factor that the PS2 hasn't been a winner in.

Is it just me, but I don't remember anyone talking about a three-way tie at the beginning of the generation.

Microsoft jumped out early when it released the Xbox 360 one year before the other consoles to take a lead -- but it was felt that Sony would catch-up quickly when it came out with the PS3.

Meanwhile, the Nintendo Wii was expected to finish a distant third with total lifetime sales to be no more than the Gamecube.

Mike from Morgantown

thats subjective

The question really is what does 'winnable' mean. From a corporate stand point of view, gaining market share, along with year over year, and generation over generation growth, with PROFITABILITY is winning. Based on that, Nintendo is the clear winner. They have gained market share, and have huge profits. They can do nothing to loose this generation. Microsoft is also a winner. They have gained market share, they have become profitable, and clearly have become dominant players in software with microsoft game studios. The dominance in Noth America is clear, they have achieved Parity in Europe, and have improved in Japan, but perhaps not as much as they liked. Microsoft has also layed the groundworks for future generations with adapting the gaming console with a center of media. Live is in its infancy, and likely will be the dominant player for intyerface with other applications (ala netflicks, Twitter, facebook, instant streaming, etc).

Sony is the clear Loser. They have lost market share, they have lost billions in the gaming division, and will not recoupe those losses this or next generation. This setback financially will hurt them next generation as well as they will most certainly be behind the loop when the Wii HD comes out along with the next Xbox. Their arrogance has cost them dearly, as they have always been one to try to push their propriotary formats (example -Bmax, propriotary memory sticks, and of course blu-ray). If not for Toshiba's foresight in that HD physical media will be a niche product, and pulling out of HD-DVD (and Toshiba does have the resources to drag on a fight for years), Sony would be in an even worse finacial situation because of blu-ray. (They still may be because many people beleive that streaming HD will be the preferred format of the near future, not blu-ray).

My personal thought is that Nintendo holds all the power with regards to gaming consoles. Even if the Wii HD comes out in a coupel of years with similar specs as a PS3 (which I doubt as there would be no reason not to make it more powerful), It will continue to keep marketshare and continue to grow. Sony' s main competetor has alway been Nintendo, not Microsfoft. Wii-HD will likely put the final nail in the coffin for the PS3 as they will control Japan, MS will control America, and MS-Nintendo-Sony will split Europe.

And by they way, PS3 is not going to catch Xbox with regards to consoles sold. Already the numbers are reversing in NA with Xbox selling more, and will continue the rest of the holiday season, last year Xbox outsold PS3 > 2:1 holiday season in NA where the bulk of console sales are. I expect parity or PS3 to be higher only because of Japan sales, but with regards to software, the big multiplatform games are going sell and push hardware much more than 1st party games. CoD:MW2 will push more consoles than any other offering this year, and we all know that Shooters sell extremely well in NA..........