shipment numbers
2013-Q3 xbox360 : 79.4 million
2013-Q3 ps3 : 83.5 million (includes 4 quarters of ps2 numbers)
aha I hear you say but sony were including ps2 numbers with the ps3 numbers for the last 4 quarters until the ps2 got discontinued start 2013.
thus we dont know the last 4 quarters on this graph here
ps2 shipment numbers
for the ps3 to have shipped > 4 million less (thus 83.5-4million = 79.5million same as xb360) means you're saying the ps2 was actually growing at the end of its cycle? Very unlikely it was shipping >a million per quarter.
In its christmas quarter 2011 it only shipped 0.9 million (christmas normally is the biggest quarter)
Sigh, not this again.
Anyways, you dont have to do all these complicated things, just look at the dates on these articles
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/17/xbox-360-80-million-sold-and-counting
http://us.playstation.com/corporate...3-sales-reach-80-million-units-worldwide.html
360 beat PS3 to 80 million by ~3 weeks. Mind you this was well past when people already said PS3 was ahead.
3 weeks of shipments at the holiday season is likely at least over 1 million consoles perhaps.
First quarter of 2014, well Ms announced 800k 360, and Sony shipped 700k or less PS3 (3.7 million total playstation, but they sold 3 million PS4's in that period). So, nothing to make up the gap there, and in fact more evidence of a ongoing 360 sales lead.
For your PS2 thing, yes it's possible they shipped a lot of PS2's at the end, since they knew they would never make any more.
If you think the opposite, then you'll have to say PS3 was selling better YoY for that period, except that in every territory with recorded sales (NPD, Media Create, probably Nintendo EU graphs for that matter) it was selling significantly worse YoY. Like 25+% worse As you would expect, this late in a gen, and as 360 did). So you'll have to say "recorded sales everywhere we get them were way down, but Sony magically shipped significantly more PS3's in that period than the year prior"
So you end up with two possibilities: PS2 shipping suddenly more, or PS3 shipping suddenly more, in the time period in question. Given we have recorded PS3 sales and they are not just down but way down for that period in any major market we have them, the latter is almost impossible. Whereas the former, as noted, besides being the only real possibility, at least has a plausible explanation.
Then some have fallen back to "but emerging markets! That's why PS3 was up even though it was way down everywhere we could measure" or something. But then you'd have to justify why these emerging markets burgeoning sales never seemed to appear before or since for PS3.
The bottom line is thanks to Sony we wont know, but the evidence is pretty overwhelming. If PS3 ever beats 360 to a particular milestone, announced by Sony and Ms like 80 million was, then I'll "admit" PS3 is ahead. Of course if Sony is smart they never will so they can obfuscate that they're behind. I was very surprised they announced 80 million! It just gave us proof they were behind.
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