Actually from what I hear even now the Ps3 is proving inferior to the xbox for one main reason.
They designed a basecode for game develpment that most of the big game manufacturers basically cant use. They will undoubtedly not be able to make as many or enough games to compete with the Wii or the Xbox 360 . The same killer hit games that come out are made using the same basecode. Since ps3's is so different the game manufactures have to rewrite the whole game using that programming language. And many of these manufactures have declined to make thier titles with ps3 support.
Basically the short amount of games that will be developed for the Ps3 will make this console just another expensive Blue Ray Player.
Due to the flaws of the designers and the people that pushed the ps3 into production this console will very doubtfully bring the profits they were hoping to achieve. Not to mention the first massive batches of ps3s have crashed or burned up costing the company millions in broken console returns.
Even today the Wii and 360 sales are stomping the ps3 into the ground.
Some fear that sony might not be able to cover thier massive losses. And they are already on the verge of financial destruction. They are loosing approximately $390.00 per unit! according to some articles.
Also there is a rumor that xbox 360 will be dropping thier prices to $199 and implimenting bundles for $400 that will include a premium 360 and Microsoft Zune.
Anything is possible but I doubt it, Sony is just far too large they will pull something off.
They can afford to take the hit because once the bugs are worked out and they get Sony Online up, they will make so much money its crazy.
I doubt Nintendo can afford the hit though they don't have over 40 billion something to invest like Sony (or Microsoft) but then again Nintendo is not competing for this market. They don't want the online world market etc etc.
My take on it is WII is going to stomp PS3 to bits in japan for the most part, 360 will do so so there, and PS3 will keep fighting for number 2 with the 360 in North America, Europe etc
And the war will get really bloody once Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy XIII and all of that come out while t he 360 gets Blue Dragon 2, Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean 4 and so on.
PS3 is harder to develop for but they gave all the devs the base code, and thats going to do good for Sony because they still have alot of Japanese RPG developers to carry them. 360 only has a few and until they do really good in japan I doubt they will catch up to Sony's market.
Edit: I will say this though.
I own a PS2 and Grand Theft Auto carried the playstation period. Final Fantasy carried it in japan, but the playstation 2 would n ever have sold nearly 198 million consoles or 200 million at all....
It would have capped at 90 million including replacement PS2s.
The reason the playstation 2 ever SURPASSED the userbase of the playstation 1 is because of one game series: Grand Theft Auto.
No other game series sold as much or sold as many ps2s........NONE
The rest practically suck if you want me to be brutally honest here........NONE of them are as good as Grand Theft Auto, not Final Fantasy, NONE.
The only reason of course PS2 lost the exclusive Grand Theft Auto franchise was it could make more money on more platforms including Xbox....and the developers wanted to.
PS2 up until that point was just the same average machine that survived in japan because of Final Fantasy alone......
GRAND THEFT AUTO MADE the playstation 2, and it makes any system it comes to......Its the most interactive game of all time.
GTA: Double Pack actually outsold Halo for at least a month and sold more copies than Rainbow Six and Halo COMBINED for at least a month straight that's unheard of. Everyone I know bought one.
And Microsoft courting Grand Theft Auto has only hurdled its sales upward, because it will be on 360 first, and if they could BUY and ensure its always exclusive along with Halo.........Sony would never catch up again.
Microsoft would steal Sony's REAL Halo once they took GTA.....Because GTA sold over 40 million PS2 consoles, and well over 70 million copies (including all versions) and it continues to sell like crazy today.....even on PSP.