Why has the PS3 outsold the 360 by almost 1.5 million units this year?

[Sansui]

Sky Render said:

Your argument still rings hollow. Microsoft has done the exact same thing with the 360 as they did with the original XBOX, the only noteworthy difference being that Sony didn't have the limelight already this time around (meaning it worked a bit better). But buying support still hasn't helped them overcome their market cap; the 360 is still basically the same as the PS3 save in terms of a handful of very genre-specific titles.

The system's lack of a meaningful selling point to differentiate itself sufficiently from its competition is why it's approaching market saturation. Every last feature on it can be found on another console in some form, and every last game on it has an analogous game (if not the exact same game) on another system. Price drops are not going to change this fact; at best, they will bring a handful of people still on the fence over to the 360 camp, but even then, they're only nabbing people from the same crowd they nabbed people from with the original XBOX. Who do they draw from when everybody who's even willing to consider the purchase of a 360 has made up their mind?

 

There's not much for me to respond here because you're essentially going on your opinion of the 360 feature set being the same on other consoles and purchased exclusives / additional third party support being 'irrelevant'.  You're also assuming that people who own one console will not want a 360 regardless of price.

Who will purchase a 360 when they've already made up their mind?  Many PS3 owners will, once the price drops enough. After all, my first console purchase last gen was a ps2, and when I got an amazing deal on a used xbox, I snatched it up quick, entirely based on price / handful of exclusives.  The same holds true for the ps3 - whenever it hits mainstream price levels, many x360 owners will want to pick one up for exclusives they missed and because it's cheap enough (like me).

The 360 has much, much stronger software than the original xbox did, they're going to have leeway for price adjustments all the way to mainstream levels (they learned their lesson from the nvidia fiasco), and they are going to continue support and production for years to come.