@ Al Bundy lol yeah i remember those days, some sites still claiming sony will fail and none of them dont know wats in sony bank account unless sony anounce it. Playb3yond

BOOM

^^^^ BOOOOOM!!!!1

I agree. Sony is kickin world wide and have been. Good job Sony.

Bubs all around =D

Till GT5 comes out. ^_^

If the 360 continues to sell at it's current rate and the PS3 hits this target by the end of March, that means the 360's lead will be down to only 4 million worldwide.

When you consider that at one point the 360 was 9 million ahead of the PS3, the 360 must really feel the PS3 breathing down it's neck.

Also, if you consider a 30% failure rate for the first 2 years and then a 10% failure rate after that, if even a quarter of those people who had a 360 die on them bought a new console or went through a 3rd party retailer for replacements, it's conceivable that right now the amount of working PS3's and 360's in the wild will soon be tied.

That certainly goes a long way in explaining why companies like Ubisoft and EA can report just as much if not more revenue coming from the PS3 than the 360. Just a thought.

Yep, great year for Sony and Nintendo.

Bruceongames comes to mind whenever I read some PS3 is doom articles. Bungie/Whydis/PP/other multiple accounts comes to mind whenever 360 fan boy are mentioned.

This is great news for Sony!

Undoubtedly, the ps3 has clawed back a lot of ground and it certainly made all the people who forecasted its imminent failure look very foolish indeed.

Sony did a lot of things wrong when they first launched, but since the pricedrop and the slim sku, hardware sales have been looking up in a big way!

The only thing I am concerned about is that Sony is boasting these hardware figures in the wake of firstly, its most signifant possible pricedrop this gen, and secondly, the one and only release of the slim sku.

There can be no doubt that Sony MUST maintain its sales momentum for the next two years. I fear that if the momentum drops, then Sony has nothing left to spur it on again.
After all, they cannot release ANOTHER slim, nor can they significantly drop the price again.

Reputable reports across the net have suggested that the competing 'Natal' will significantly outsell and out-innovate the upcoming 'arc'. Any reasonable person can see that the ps3's competition is poised to aggressively recapture the lead in market share in the months following March 2010.

Even worse, SONY is still losing money on its hardware and software sales have stagnated since 2008, as proven in their recent quarterly financial report.

In conclusion, meeting their sales targets for FY2009 is fabulous news and ps3 fanboys may rejoice over this.
However, upon closer investigation we can conclude that the path ahead is highly likely to be a difficult one, for the ps3.

To those who thought Sony was truly doomed, I say you people are a bunch of silly neanderthals. To even think that a company with a legacy as Sony's would let an iconic gaming console go the way of the dodo is beyond me. Every company slips up once and a while but it's not the measure to how far they slip but how far they come back from the fall. Sony has done a great job of recovering from a few blunders and is now poised to take over the spot MS stole with the silly and detrimental year head start. They should have kept the 360 in R&D for another year and released a quality console and kept us all from beta testing the 360 for the first three years. Sony is quality and nothing can be said to deny that.

And We Only Can Expect More From Sony:

·3D
·GOW3
·GT5

And this is Just The Beginning......

Gamers FTW!!!

@C64 - I wouldn't say it's quite that clear that Natal will be a bigger hit than the Arc or Gem or whatever. They're both a little too new to say for sure whether *either* will be a hit. Both of them, properly marketed, have the potential to cut into the Wii's future sales, though.

In any case, the 'loss on hardware' is a *much* smaller percentage these days (if any in the recent revisions, and Sony's bringing out two new models of Slim which apparently have less expensive wireless chipsets) and Sony's got a lot of major games coming out this year and next that we know of. Much less projects still under wraps...

Oh, it's hardly a guarantee for Sony, but I don't think their outlook is all *that* bleak.

@ ^^^

well of course we cannot predict the future, but I have made some fair points, supported by reputable industry analysts.

The gist of my post above was that Sony has had a tremendous year, one that will need to be repeated, or improved upon, for two more years.

My post also highlighted that the last year was really due to a price cut and the MAJOR re-release of ps3 as slim.
Both of those things won't be happening again in the next two years.
The slim revision you mention will have nil impact on consumer sales, as no-one will be able to tell the difference.

Overall, I wouldn't say that the outlook for PS3 is *bleak*.
However, it ain't all that rosy, all things considered.

Is that fair?

@C64 - I note that most "reputable industry analysts" didn't predict, at all, the fabulous success of the Wii either. :-> I don't trust them to be able to predict which of Natal and Arc/Gem (if either) will catch on. The Natal/Arc thing is a wildcard, could go any which way.

I'm aware that the new Slims won't drive more sales, but I didn't say that. What I *said* was that they'll allow Sony to realize more profit on those sales (whether immediately if costs get low enough, or just sooner from subsequent accessory/software purchases).

I don't think Sony needs a major changeup like an even less expensive "Slimmer" or whatever. I think they just need to maintain momentum with major game releases - which they're doing. The Wii, on the other hand, has pretty well leveled off. (A *high* level, certainly, but... :-> ) The 360's got things like Alan Wake and Halo Reach coming, certainly... but I'm not sure they're system sellers the way the Gran Turismo series has historically been.

Maybe we're just mostly in violent agreement.

Ill rather be in 2nd place than in last place.

make you feel better

make you feel better...pity

haha MS is in your brains! You can't even enjoy the good news that your beloved/worshipped company is doing good without mentioning them.

Hey. I really like the PS3 and I think Sony has turned a corner since KZ2 released in my opinion. The 360 is doing good as well and is delivering quality entertainment to its owners.

See, that's not too hard.. Now you try.

Why would you want that when MS has yet to show it can manage 1st party devs?

I mean Rare's only been able to ride the coattails of the games they made before joining MS while Bungie bought themselves out. They've even shut down a few shortly before they released games. At the very least there's a suggestion that their in-house management structure is not supportive of new IPs.

That's a weird thing to say, Godmars. I would have assumed that you would at least agree with me that MS should get more first party studios. But now you're saying that they shouldn't even have those? What exactly do you want MS to do? Do you want them to just leave the gaming industry? I want them to be better. I want them to be a bit more like Sony in that department.

SOAD but i also see Godmars point. There is no question that MS needs to build their first party for their gamers sake. Relying on 3rd parties is indeed not a sign of good comittement to your fans. Take this gen for example. Almost all x360 exclsuives have shown up on the PS3 in less than 3 years.

If i was a x360 fan i would expect MS to secure more top exclusives that are actually exclusives.

In saying this MS also needs to take more risk and give these devs more space and foster a good family of 1st party devs that show off what the x360 HW is capable of.

Imagine if MS created their own Hack and Slash game that really shows off the x360 hw and rivals GOW?. Wouldn't that be great?. It would have given x360 fans and gamers more reason to like or buy an x360. MS is not thinking long term. Their formula now with 3rd party might be working for them finacially but it won't cut it in the future. MS can never garuntee that ME or SC or Gears will not go anywhere else unless they buy them. That is the reality and if this happens then what?. 3rd party exclusive we all know are going the way of the dodo. Even MGS5 is not garuntee to be a PS3 exclusive. The only way forward is to invest in 1st party.

I don't want them out of the industry if only for the sake of what healthy competition does for the industry as a whole, but MS has proven itself to be too focused on competition creating an unhealthy atmosphere. That they are more than willing to sacrifice product quality if it gives them an overall edge. It might be a mindset that serves them, but it does jack for the consumer.

I'll say it again for what little its worth: MS has not shown that they can create a successful IP in-house. They can advertise a 1st or 2nd party title, but they can't make a solid word of mouth hit.

Given that, what makes anyone think they could outright buy a 1st party dev and successfully manage them? Just let them do their thing?

@cmrbe thats true as much as i dont care for MS now that would make me like them again. They need more first party games, I like the old MS when bill gates was running it. Playb3yond