The PlayStation 4 has delivered a lot of value for Sony over the years, giving it a significant wedge in the console wars and letting it recover from the losses of the PS3 generation in a big way. With a kind-of new console generation coming up, it's worth seeing what's been going on in the field. The news has been good so far for Sony, but what's to come?

The news is profoundly good; the PS3 over its lifetime sold 80 million units, and right now the PS4 is just past the 60 million mark. Plus, Sony expects to send out another 18 million over the next year, putting it almost neck-and-neck with the previous generation. That's good news, but the long-term trend is clearly down; the original PlayStation weighs in at 102 million and the PlayStation 2 at 155 million.

Comparing it to other consoles, the picture is clearly weighed against sony. The Wii sold 101 million units in its lifetime, and the Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 as well. Yet even here there is hope; the original Nintendo Entertainment System only sold 62 million units over its lifetime, and the 3DS isn't far above that at the 66 million mark.

Still, if Sony can push the PS4 sales over the PS3 sales, it would look like an upturn, which is great news for the company and for console operations in general. Should Sony clear the 60 million point, it would make it the 10th best selling gaming device of all time, according to word from Destructoid, which would make it a real winner.

The arrival of the PS4 Pro and Project Scorpio, though, may well fundamentally change the console market as we know it. If all future consoles are just incremental improvements--kind of like the PC market is shaping up--we may well see a point where there is no PS5 or Xbox Two, just an improved version of the last system. The console wars may prove to be a much less cyclical activity going forward, which isn't exactly great news for Microsoft given that the Xbox is behind right now.

We've already seen Microsoft make clear pushes toward making the Xbox function a lot more like a  gaming PC that's kept in the living room. This may not actually pan out like that--though it would be exciting to get PC gaming that's as easy to work with as an Xbox One title is now--but it could be the case, and that would certainly be exciting. Imagine access to all the greatest PC games from a console with gamepad controls; we've already seen it work before, just look at Minecraft and Stardew Valley.

Only time will tell just how this all ends up, but the next console generation may be one of the strangest such operations yet.