Between the Big three (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo), who is the worst when at the top?

[Farsala]

Kneetos said:

While Microsoft were never in 1st place console wise, I would argue that they were the best of the 3 during the ps360-wii days

Call of duty had exclusivity deals with Microsoft, and even some Japanese games made it over there in the case of blue dragon.
It wasn't until the end of the generation where Microsoft shifted the 360 from more of a console to more of a "service" box. If Microsoft kept up what made the 360 a better choice then the ps3 then sony might have been in 3rd place that gen.

As an aside I would like to point out that the xbox 360 sold the most software that gen, so saying xbox got "dead last" just because they sold the least HW, and not even by that much, seems a bit unfair

I disagree. MS was still the only console to force paid online during that generation. That alone makes them the worst. But in addition they had RROD fiasco, which as long as they sold consoles, they didn't care about the quality of their consoles until the media and people made a ruckus. MS used their favorable position... and created the kinect and then the Xbox One.

@bold, while it is true that the 360 may have sold more SW than the Wii or the PS3, I still can't give them the SW win because Nintendo and Sony still sold more SW than MS during the 360 era.

Also IIRC 360 total software sales are unconfirmed, so the PS3 and Wii are still within the margin of error.