I just checked out the PS3 Mass Effect 3 thread and some people seem to be pretty adamant in their stance that PS3 fans didn't buy the game in force because it's too much of a shooter and PS3 fans don't like shooters. I'm sure there's more to it than just that but that appears to be a popular belief. It got me thinking. Over the past several years, Xbox 360 fans have been labeled as fans of shooters and this is why games like Halo, Call of Duty, and Gears of War sell so well on them. At the same time, PS3 fans have been labeled as having much more diverse tastes and this is why certain games don't do as well and other games seem to do better on the PS3.
Where does this come from? I didn't do any super extensive research. I picked a few games for multiple genres that were multi-plats and compared the PS3 versions sales to the 360 versions sales. In almost every instance, the 360 version outsold the PS3 version, regardless of the genre. Sometimes, when the PS3 version would win out, it would be exactly what the game sold in Japan (where the PS3 rules and the 360 is pretty much non-existent), I'm aware that the 360 has the bigger userbase in the Americas (the biggest market) so that may be why 360 games tend to sell better.
The bottom line: If 360 fans are only fans of shooters and PS3 fans are so diverse in their tastes, I want to see some proof. If not, can people PLEASE stop using the "PS3 fans like a bigger variety of games" excuse for why game A didn't do well or why game B is such a success?
Games I looked at were: Dead Rising 2, Street Fighter 4. Tomb Raider Underworld, Final Fantasy XIII, Batman Arkham Asylum, BioShock 2, Dirt (series). Smackdown vs Raw (series), Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire, Dead Space, Silent Hill Homecoming, Resident Evil 5, Saints Row 2, Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing, Lego Star Wars. Dragon Age Origins, Prince of Persia (series), Castlevania Lords of Shadow, Dante's Inferno, Nier, Ghostbusters, and Bayonetta.