PS3 on a roll.

Wii will be back on top where it belongs soon.

My point was it wasn't actually Wii's strongest year (3rd party wise yes, but not in general) while it was PS3's (unquestionably).  And PS3 still might not sell more, it's basically a dead heat.  I guess that's a victory, but to me it says more about the general weakness of Japan's console market rather than the strength of PS3.  In a sense, everyone's losing while DS (and PSP to a lesser extent) wins.

And the Slim is a conscious rebranding and inherent relaunch, bottom up.  It's basically like DS Lite, PSP go or GBA SP, possibly even further given they've even redesigned the entire logo and branding. And it's worked about as well as possible for the platform.

You can probably throw out pricepoint arguments as well, Japan had no issue buying PS2 in droves at PS3's current pricepoint and Wii's (first) drop was relatively minor (though it has had some effect, basically doubling weekly sales).  Hell, if price drove things, 360 would be leading both right now.  Wii did get it's first new case color though, while we've had what, 4 for PS3 already?  I bet PS3 slim has more than 3 colors by the time Wii gets it's 3rd color.

No it didn't, GT4 passed the 10m mark in April 2008 (10.6m to be exact, it was 9.92m in Dec 2007).  

And MGS4 is more the exception than the rule when it comes to PS2 to PS3 franchises.  Disgaea, Virtua Fighter, Musou, Gundam, Tekken, Yakuza, Winning Eleven, Mingol, Rachet & Clank, GTA, Madden, Ridge Racer, Katamari, KOF, NFS, Burnout, etc, etc... basically all these games have sold appreciably less, for various reasons (reduced userbase, multiplatform release, diminishing brand, critical response, etc).   And actually, while MGS4 matched MGS3 figures, actually didn't hit MGS2's benchmark.  The general notion that "fans will come" has been disproven time and again already, I don't expect GT5 to suddenly break the cycle...  

And offhand, bizarrely, Capcom's the only company I know of who can claim higher sales on PS3 than PS2 for most of their brands (Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Street Fighter).  

I hate to stir up trouble, but is the week ending January 3 considered part of 2008 instead of 2009?  Because if you include that week's sales as part of this year, then PS3 still has a ways to go before catching up:

Wii: 1,143,537

PS3: 1,071,780

These numbers are through Oct 24 and have the PS3 trailing by 71,757.

still ps3 costs 29,980 and Wii 19,980
huge price difference

@violent Phlegm

BOTH Famitsu & Media Crete had the gap at 10K - 15K 2 weeks ago

so by now, thanks to this week, according to Famitsu/Media Create PS3 is the victor in 2009

No... I mean that the article you posted didn't include January 3 numbers (they're VGC numbers, BTW).  What I'm asking is if the January 3 numbers should be considered 2008 or 2009.

The week ending Jan 3 (2009) would be counted as 2008, so the PS3 should be ahead by now.

The difference is so small, though, it's practically negligible. December is what we're all waiting for.

Okay, then.  Just wasn't sure what conventions were used.