Compared to the PS1 and PS2 the PS3 has of course been a bit of a failure in the US. Not a total failure but certainly it represents two steps back for Sony in that market.
Five things clearly were at the root of this:
1 - Xbox/Halo and Live set the scene for gamers who would have turned to PC to turn to a console
2 - 360 launched earlier and with both one killer app (Halo 3) and one strong new IP aimed squarely at the same PC gamer as Halo (Gears) securing an initial lead in the market and, perhaps more importantly, establishing the 360 SDK first with western developers who were turning from PC to PC/Console to increase sales
3 - Live. MS saw that in US online for consoles would be huge and they did a better job of offering a good infrastructure with Live that PSN trailer for many months. The early launch of 360 also allowed Live further time to grow before PS3/PSN launched
4 - The Wii quickly took the non-PC centric demographic that had previously gone with Sony consoles, leaving the PS3 to fight the 360 for one demographic and the Wii for another. Instead of buying a PS2 with dance mats and family titles people bought a Wii for similar experiences.
5 - Blu Ray. The PS2 rode the success of DVD while the PS3 had to champion the growth of BR instead. BR pushed the price point of the PS3 up way above 360 and made the PS3 an expensive "early adopter" bit of tech rather than a handy "second DVD player in the family room" bit of tech.
The PS3 has rallied pretty well actually but Sony will really have a challenge next gen. To be honest I suspect they have more chance of taking the more casual demographic back from Nintendo than taking the PC demographic back from MS.
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
