@ MrPickles

360 is a beast in the states, but is waining in other regions and non-existant in Japan. Right now its only advantage is being able to handle the same games that developers know will never make back their money on PS3.

...And that's yet another strength for the X360, gamer girl.

The issue is that since the PS3 is hemmoraging oh-so many games, and the X360 is picking them up as multiplats, expanding the sales base.

Also, maybe it's me, but I call BS when I keep seeing these "vast library of FPS games". The X360 is still the leader of Sports, Racing, RPGs, and RTS genres. Sales for these genres still vastly outpace that of sales for the Wii and PS3.

Also, the ironic thing is that Lego Star Wars 2 on the X360 might outsell Ratchet and Clank worldwide. Should this be the case, can you really say with a straight face, that the PS3 is succuessfully selling, at all, to the younger audience?

well, to me this is a big advantage: X360 is the "FPS console" also for developers...after seeing COD4 sales ( 1.5M in 3 weeks in US alone according to NPD) i don't think that any 3rd party developer interested in making a FPS would take the risk of leaving out the X360 and give an exclusive to PS3.

On the other side, when the game is not a FPS, the "not so amazing" performaces of great games (both in terms of quality and developing costs) like rachet or uncharted won't help the decision of 3rd parties to bring exclusives to ps3 leaving out the x360.

And when you add the fact that the non-FPS games rarely bomb, or preform as poorly as a PS3 game (on average), it's a secure bet any non-FPS game will most likely be multi-plat as well.

 Having owned a N64 I think the games library mostly appealed to kids. I agree the launch game Mario64 was most excellent quality, too bad not many game interested me afterwards. N64 sold really well in the beginning significantly beating the PS1, but the PS1 games library eventually was more far appealing to a wider audience.

But I was referring to FPS games, around that time consoles couldn't get close to the quality PC FPS games provided.

I agree to a point... The 360's best games are primarily Teen or higher with an awful lot skewed toward M. There are, however, quite a few games that appeal to my daughter and she has become interested in not just the game, but the overall presentation of that game.... So, when a game is multi-plat and isn't specifically enhanced by the wiimote, she goes 360... Lego Star Wars and Thrilville are a couple of recent examples...

I will admit the 360 has a long way to go in order to get more family oriented titles but it is definitely making some progress. The problem is, they don't "think" like nintendo when it comes to content. Viva Pinata is a good example... Yes, it is a GREAT game, and I know they wanted it to do well. My daughter loved the game up until the point she realized that the pinatas ate each other. That one little facet of the game ruined it for her. Back it went to the store... I have talked to so many people that tried Viva and didn't like that aspect that it makes one wonder what the hell MS/Rare were thinking when they made the game... "I know, let's make a visually incredible "animal-crossing" and let them eat each other... yeah, the kids and parents will love that!"....

Nintendo is the king when it comes to family entertainment. Period. A 360+Wii or a PS3+Wii is mandatory, in my opinion, for a diverse gaming household with both adults and kids playing....

@MikeB: At the time the PS3 slimline arrives, there may be a big overlap between Wii and PS3. You seem to make assumption that the current "camps" hold. Wii is different from 360, Wii has the best 1st party support, while 360 has the worst. There's a reason why Nintendo published almost every game to diffent genre, it's because they want to create a diverse library. Not the best way to make profit in a short term, but priceless in the long run. So every new genre for Wii, that Nintendo makes, they create an installbase for 3rd parties games. And after all, it takes only one few games to prove their sales, and the shooters and racing games start to flow to Wii.
But if we talk about the current situation, which may take a year or two to change, then you're absolutely right.

I don't actually think that survey was unexpected, good find anyway, since ages 25-34 people are setting steady and start to have families, which limits the amount of time in pubs/nightclubs, so you need to have something else to do. Movies don't provide content as much as games and it also is something you can do with your kids, just like play football in summer and ice hockey in winter.
Also a lot of people in that group are lapsed gamers, who played games as a kid and have interested in gaming again.
When the 16-24 group is a lot of singles, couples, students, who have also a lot of other activies besides gaming, which don't keep them home playing games.
Anyway, i think the agegroups were too big, it would have been better to have groups 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 30-34. I didn't read the survey, i just read what you posted about it.

@Bod: It's weakness is it's strength in short term, but will hurt it in long term. I'd say M$ really needs to get the 360 library more varied/more diverse, since after Wii hits 10M gap and the genres 360 has, 360 will not be a viable option for Wii, neither to gamers nor developers. And that means less sales->less profit in the future, so the aspect is not just competing in market share, but ability to make profit.

Still but looking ahead to the future,

- Sports: Nearly all XBox 360 sports games will be heading to the PS3 as well, and the qualtiy will become on par.

- Racing: Motorstorm 3.1 is the racing game I currently prefer the most myself, I would say with Gran Turismo 5 hitting the market eventually the PS3 will have the edge.

- RPG: Oblivion is probably the best RPG game available for the 360, but the PS3 version is greatly improved (720p instead of 600p. less loading time, better framerate, further draw distance, more content on disc). With anticipated games like Final Fantasy XIII and White Knight story I would say the PS3 will be most appealing to RPG gamers.

- RTS: Civilization (and probably C&C 3) is going to hit both the 360 and PS3, IMO this gerne is currently dominated by the PC, but with mouse and keyboard support on the PS3 the console holds more potential than its rivals. Sid Meier: "Computers no longer have the edge on set-top systems.", "Remember: The PlayStation 3 is light years ahead of this technology. As with any new platform, it's going to be a challenge and take designers some time to come to grips with the hardware. But believe me, you'll be amazed by the possibilities"

I keep seeing this argument and frankly I don't understand it. The 360's lineup is more diverse than the PS3's. Everyone keeps calling the 360 the FPS console. Hell people still call Gears of War a FPS. Which if thats the case, i guess Uncharted is an FPS too. When will people learn the difference between third person and first person. When will anyone notice despite its Japanese performance the 360 has more RPG's than the PS3. When a game like Viva Pinata tanks on 360, its a sign that only FPS's sell on 360. Yet Ratchet & Clank, Heavenly Sword, and Uncharted aren't lighting up the charts for PS3 and several FPS titles have. I think I will make "hypocrisy" my word of the day. EDIT: I am an RPG gamer, only reason I picked up a PS2 last gen. Outside of White Knight Story, I could care less for the PS3 rpg lineup. Final Fantasy has been in the toilet for years and I refuse to roll the dice and buy a PS3 on the hope that Square Enix might get it right this time.