When the PS3 launched in November of 2006, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 had a 5.4 million lead over it’s Japanese rival. Of course, when the PS3 launched, it was prohibitively expensive, with many people waiting for it come down in price before jumping in experiencing living.

Fast-forward to the end of 2009, the combined power of the PS3’s incredible library and it’s cheaper price thanks to the PS3 slim re-launch and you’d expect that gap to have decreased quite substantially, right? Well, no.

According to VGchartz, as of December 2009 the global gap has actually increased, by the insignificant amount of 100K. This is mostly thanks to the US market where the Xbox 360 is undoubtedly the dominant HD console. The 360’s lead in that territory has increased significantly, now sitting at a gap of 9.1 million. Interestingly, the gap is now 300K units larger than when the cheaper PS3 slim launched. It seems the PS3 is going to struggle to win the hearts and minds of the Americans.

Of course, the converse is true for Japan, where the PS3 is the HD console of choice. As a matter of fact, it’s not even fair to put the 360 in the running, so dismal is it performance in the land of the rising sun. VGchartz has the PS3 lead there pegged at just under 3.4 Million units.

The rest of the world – Including Europe, the Middle East, Australasia our own Africa – has historically always been Sony territory. It still is, thanks largely to the PS3 price drop, which saw PS3 sales skyrocket. The current console disparity though is a mere 248 thousand, in Sony’s favour.

Taken all together, we can see that the Xbox 360 currently has a sales lead of about 5.5 million units, slightly larger than the lead they had just before the PS3’s launch. In fact, sales of the rival since Sony’s console made it to market have only differentiated by about 0.3% in the last 3 years.

From this data it would seem that PS3’s lower price hasn’t done much to bridge the gap, but it is worth noting that the price reduction was a mere 4 months ago, and the PS3’s library is looking stronger and stronger with each new release schedule.

Maybe 2010, like the 3 years before it will finally be the year of the PS3.

Source : VGchartz