why american prefer 360 to PS3?

[mike_intellivision]

The 360 came out a year earlier, so the hard-core gamers who are early adopters went that way.

The FPS games -- esp. Halo -- are favored by the core demo -- the male 15-34 who buy the Xbox. They also play Madden (American football game, which ran much better on the 360 than the PS3 this year).

The on-line service is very popular and works well with the types of games that 360 players like.

There is also more breadth to the 360 lineup, both because of it being out a year earlier and because XBLA offers casual games.

Sony's online, while free, is fledgling. Also, there really isn't anything currently available that does not have a substitue on the 360. (Substitute in the sense of the word as it is used in economics). MGS4 and GT5 could change that ... though some would argue that Forza is the 360's Gran Turismo. (I would add FF13, but that probably won't be out this year).

Another unique entry will be Little Big Planet. But will it work and will it appeal to PS3 buyers? And when will it come out? (Personally, like the 360's Pinata series, it would seem to me that such an effort would fare better with the Wii audience).

But to get back to the question -- head start and games -- the reasons many people have given.

The console makers are all international conglomerates with manufacturing in China. So it really does not matter if it is Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo. And to be honest, most people in the US probably have heard of Sony and maybe even Nintendo before they heard of Microsoft. (Sony has been making TV and electronics for decades. The NES came out in 1985. But no one in the mainstream really paid attention to Microsoft until Windows in the late 1980s. And yes, I am aware that the company had been around for almost a decade at that point). So I don't buy the "Buy American" arguement to any great extent.

Mike from Morgantown