"While Sony may have been outpaced by Microsoft this console generation in terms of sales figures" is a pretty loaded comment, that would be difficult to prove, given sales data that's available.
Sony sold less hardware than Microsoft in North America, but had stronger sales in Europe and Asia, so overall the PS3 actually sold more hardware. The software sales in North America are generally the strongest, so it's likely Microsoft edged Sony in 3rd party software sales, but Sony had more 1st party software sales.
So the comment should have been qualified, or left out of the "article".