I've experienced it with many many friends of mine. People tend to think that USA = World and since you see NPD numbers come in having the PS3 lose to the 360...well "PS3 sucks", with lack of better terms.
Example: Recently back at school, I heard a friend say "Man, PS3 is in trouble. It's got no chance against the 360, what with Bioshock 2 Mass Effect 2, and Halo Reach coming out". I immediately thought to myself "Why would a multiplatform game, a game that releases day and date with the PC, and Halo cause the PS3 to be in trouble? Halo is the biggest gun there, and Halo 3 and ODST didn't 'kill' the PS3. Why will reach be any different?" However, they know that the 360 has the advantage here and take that to mean everything. If they saw things from a worldwide perspective, their views would change, but they aren't people like us, who constantly research game news and keep up with sales. Then it just becomes a domino effect afterwards.
I mean, another friend of mine (immediately preceeding the statement about ME2, B2, and Halo) said "I've been hearing about this game called MAG for the PS3 that's supposed to 'save' it because it has 256 player multiplayer"
#1 The PS3 doesn't need saving and #2 if it did....who in their right mind believes that MAG would be the game to do it? Who? UNINFORMED PEOPLE! Now, that's not to say that some people don't do their research to some degree, and then buy appropriately. It's just that a lot of people don't know about the industry and make their choices based on word of mouth from other people who haven't done their research.
Another example: I was talking to another friend of mine after MW2 launched. I told him about the record it set by having 2M people on XBL at one time. His response? "That's because XBL is great and Playstation Online (yes, he said Playstation Online, not PSN) sucks". Why does PSN, or PSO in his case, suck because there were 2M on XBL at one time? Maybe the fact that there are more 360s in consumer households has something to do with it? But the fact that there were that many people online at once has NOTHING to do with the quality of each respective service. That's like saying Checkers must suck because more people are playing Chess right now.
I guess this mainly applies to America, because most of the people I interact with have 360s and wouldn't buy a PS3...ever. But I stand by my statement that many times, people buy based on word of mouth from the uninformed. And maybe over in Europe, it's the same way, just in favor of the PS3.
