The biggest reason the PS3 may never catch up to the 360 is simply the fact that the PS3 will never be the PS2.

What I mean is that no matter who you talked to even people that had GCN or XBOX there was no denying the fact that the console that lead the way, that the press ate up and had all the momentum like a boulder rolling down hill was the PS2. This had an affect on the consumer. Consumers had to be convinced really hard to get a GCN or XBOX. The PS3 will never have this impression/hold on people. The 360 has already beat that. It isnt difficult to convince a consumer to get a 360 like it was with the XBOX. The Wii is a super easy sell. PS3 will never be an easy sell.

POSSIBLY... in America >_>; All the PS3 needs in America is an equal or lower price point before it reaches mass market. The rest of the world simply isn't gobbling up teh microsofts. Its relatively non-existant in Japan, and it's software is already getting toppled in Europe by both the Wii and the PS3, paired with the fact that the 360 was out a year before the release of the PS3 with no high def competition :/ 

And yeah, paying to play with people online sucks ass. Think of the people that really like the feature, but only occasionally play online, I don't game often, but if I have the choice between the same game on different consoles, I'll chose the one that doesn't make me pay to play with people.

I hear you on this point. I pay $30 a year for LIVE. I buy the 12-month cards and game. I really don't play online that much against folks, but since I have it, it's always good to have it if I wanna game online. I actually just got a 12-month Live card from MS as a gift for reviewing games for them. But I enjoy getting stuff weeks before the nonpaying folks. Just a handful of times has LIVE been down, but I am accustomed to paying for stuff anyhow.

I understand the Wifi bit  not everyone needs it. I however LOVE the fact that I can drag the PS3 up to my room (second story) and not have to worry about running wires of any sort, I can take it to my friends house and not worry about his setup, I love not being worried about length of wire. It's not a necesarry option by any means, but its a feature I'm sure many people will end up using.

I have a dedicated space for gaming. Only recently did I move our Wii downstairs and that was because I had to finish a review and watch the children as well. But all my gaming is in the Man Space.

The original Xbox had a hard-drive, it was the one thing that in my opinion separated the boys from the men. I was jealous of that feature, my PS2 couldent auto-save data and I was just in absolute awe that MS brought that to the console realm. When the 360 was released without one I just laughed, the abscense of that feature alone made me blow off the idea of even considering one.

I can see your point - I added a 300-gb HD to the PS2 for some sweet gaming. I actually like not having an HD because it keeps prices down. You can still game for under $300. But I had HDs with the Xbox, 360 and PS2. 

And another thing about the Blu-ray vrs. Hd-DVD. I LOVE the fact that my PS3 came with a blu-ray player. I bought it for a game console (it's got some great games), and it has the ability to play high def movies from the get-go. Forget purchasing blu-rays if I don't think the format will win, Hello Blockbuster! My group of friends has rented so many blu-rays already it's not even funny. No major comitment, just pure enjoyment of high def movies without risking anything. Purchasing a separate player just isn't in my cards until a "winner" is choses. I can understand where your comming from on that.

I was on the fence until I got a killer deal - 2-in-store HD DVDs, the Heroes HD DVD boxset, the King Kong HD DVD and 5 mail-in movies. And I was considering getting an 80gb PS3 with the 15 free BR movies, but I had already bought the 360 HD DVD add-on. I ended up buying an HD A2 HD DVD player and would only consider getting BR if I either get a 60gb PS3 or a 15-BR deal.

I understand reasons why people would purchase a 360 over a PS3, price is definately one of them. However with my train of thought I'm much bigger on "Value" than "Cost". I honestly can't justify putting down any ammount of money for a 360 when I have a PS3. And in terms of "Value" I hate getting told that my "logic" is wrong. How the hell is wanting more for my money wrong logic o.O? In terms of value Microsoft simply doesn't deliver for me.

What country are you in? In the U.S., it's price vs. value. Folks will buy a knockoff if it looks as good as the original. They want bargains - and could care less about value in most cases. It's like the rise of the HD DVD player. Folks flocked and bought the Toshiba HD DVD player because it was $99. 

 Yes, within early summer '09! From then on it'll have a 10-15% advantage WW for the rest of the gen I think.

@Mad, yeah you have a bunch of great reasons :P I like the "Man space" XD friggin awesome.

Do you really think the PS3 won't catch the 360 though? Even with the other markets factored in? 

I think people who are saying the PS3 won't stand a chance are neglecting some details... for instance:

The 360's support is heavily coming from the US market. The total of the current 360 sales are by a larger fraction coming 70% (approx) from the US (-pacman %) alone, are accounted for a good bunch of 10 million 360 sold there. The european region adding an decent, but not exceptional 5 million console support over a 2 years span. And Japan has little push for the interest in the 360.

Europe and Japan poses a threat for the 360's domination, and without a better support in those regions I do not believe the 360's continuate leadership in the HD console market will be 1st place. Unless all those american consumer start dropping the two other competitors (PS3 & Wii) in favour of the 360.

I think this "PS3 doom - 360 win" perspective is mostly cast by those american gamers with a 360 that currently dominate the US market. Whats even more strange is that party wants to persuade with its current US majority that globally, everything on the PS3's side is lost. Perhaps in the states, then yeah theres a good chance. But the worldwide movement shows other signs.

I doubt that the PS3 will surpass the 360 figures in the US, but worldwide sales figures will show changes. I think we will see the PS3 surpass the 360 market in Europe some time in the 1Q & 2Q of 2008.

At first, I thought that the PS3 would zoom past the Xbox360 with the PS3 selling like 60mil and the 360 around 35mil, but now that seems questionable. I think that it will end up being a close race between the two of them, with the Xbox360 beating the PS3 hardware wise.

The PS3 has had many price cuts and is losing exclusives. If you ask me, things aren't looking very bright for the PS3. Next year seems to be a good year for it with all of the AAA games coming out, but I am starting to think that it won't be enough for the PS3 to catch up. There is still a chance though, but it is getting smaller and smaller as time goes on.

Dude, the Man Space ain't NO JOKE. If you ever come to New Mexico, holla and you will see for yourself. It's a lil boy's dream. My 4-year-old loves hanging out and watching movies and playing games at 10.'

On topic, I am 34 years old and can remember the days of Pong, Colecovision, the 2600, Intellivision and the like. Folks back then said Atari was the king - and they were - but look at them now. Hurting financially, with a landfill not too far from here filled with E.T. games. Nintendo came on the scene and made the rest bow down. And Sega tried their best to seat them, but couldn't. Then, Sony hit and took the wheel from Ninny.

I can give you 4-5 reasons why Sony won't win this generation - in laymen's terms.

1. The price point. Sure, as far as value, the PS3 is a bargain. You can choose between a regular BR player vs. the Sony PS3. Oh, it's the best BR player money can buy. But what I see it is - Sony sacrificing the gaming division to win the BR market. Why? Sony will make a lot more on BR software than gaming. They can mass produce the movies - sell them and keep making them. Why settle for 250K a week games when you can have even more market share with BR?

2. The lack of exclusives. This is really the main reason the PS3 won't rebound. GTA, GT and FF were huge franchises for the PS brand. And having GTA on the PS2 really buried the Xbox. Had the PS3 secured GTA, it would be a repeat. However, they didn't - and the extra content is coming for the game. Plus, several PS3 only games are heading to the 360. Assassin's Creed - Virtua Fighters 5 - Devil May Cry - Mercenaries - and others - are a few games that were exclusives. You know what happened? Market share - and the 360 was easier to design for and would give them the kind of return the companies need. It costs money to develop games - it cost money to pay the bills to keep computers up and running and a company running. They will gladly include 360 in the mix because they know from Halo 3, COD4 and GH III numbers that the system has the base and it's a great chance they will buy their wares.

3. The late start. Had the PS3 been released alongside the 360, we wouldn't be having this convo. The 360 made it to the market first - and gave devs a year to get the kinks worked out of the system. Now, the devs know the 360 like the back of their hand, can develop killer games for the system and it will be much, much easier to design for than the PS3 and its Cell. Had they come out at the same time, the PS3 would have rode the street cred wave to success. Now, the PS3 is begging for devs.

4. The year of changes. I have stated this over and over - the deleted skus (20gb and 60gb), the price cuts, the new models - all within a year. I can't think of any products, except iPods, that change that often in a year. Sony was looking for a winning combo and falling short. Any other product doing that would have the board of directors calling for its head. And yet, MS, even though it wasn't making a profit on the 360 yet, didn't cut prices for nearly 2 years. The Wii won't have to cut price unless it starts losing to MS when they go lower than the Wii.

5. Street cred. Sony and the PS3 were living off the PS2's success. They were sure 5-6 million folks would buy the PS3 because of it being a PS system. And yet - some are buying it, but not as many as Sony wants. They thought "Hay, here's a new PS" and folks would line up and buy it. Heck, even the folks at Game Informer said it would be like the 360 and impossible to find for months, whereas the Wii will be easily available. Wow - what a difference a year makes! Sony was so intoxicated by the weed they said 'Hay, let's release our console a year later' and ride the tide to easy street. Not so. The 360 is proving brand name has little to do with success this gen. Even with RROD, the disk scratching and the like, the 360 is still selling. The PS3 needed a deeper price cut just to stay in the race. And it's still not profitable.

 Oddly enough the gap actually gets smaller and smaller over time XD But I see where your comming from >_>

Thank you for putting down my thoughts about this threads. *Leaves thread*