Is the PS3 a failure in America?(Compared to the PS2 &PS1)

[Reasonable]

kain_kusanagi said:

 

 It could be that in the Americas the Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 by about 12m units. That's a lot so that might be it.

Working in retail as I do I can tell you that, so far as I'm aware,that there is over 90% of the causal factors for the relative PS3 vs 360 sales per title or genre in US.  The 360 is by a fair way the console of choice in the region, and this means not only does it easily pick up more sales, but bundling and promotions have a bigger influence too - for example with Forza which saw a lot of extra sales via bundling in the US.  Even a GT5 bundle would struggle vs a Forza bundle in US simply due to market preference and baseline demand.

With a two holiday season, one year and 12 million lead in the US any PS3 title, exclusive or otheriwse, will struggle against a comparable 360 title unless for some reason the demographic for that title is massively skewed to the PS3.

Obviously this situation is a bit more balance in EMEAA with a less pronounced skew to PS3 while in Japan we see the exact opposite in a smaller market, where the PS3 enjoys a similarly huge HW install base advantage and PS3 titles can easily outsell comparable 360 titles (again apart from dempgraphic exceptions such as FPS).

If anyone puzzles as to why PS3 titles don't do as well in US as though it implies something about the PS3 or the titles itself, they need to wake up and realize it's simply market demographics.  If the US sales imply a weakness of the PS3 then the Japanese (and to a lesser extent EMEAA) sales imply a weakness of the 360.

In reality both consoles at this point are essentially 9% or more identical, with only a few features (cross chat on 360, BR and free online on PS3) seperating them from a HW point of view and only a relatively few titles (in terms of exclusives) seperating them from a software point of view.

Differences in demand and sales are now down to regional preferences based around time of launch, exclsuives and brand preference as well as different demographics - and of course price.