I think you hit the nail on the head with the xbox live point. More people playing on xbox live means more people showing it to friends. This leads to more sales and then it just fuels the cycle. That and people in the us in general dont hold some hatred agianst Microsoft.

Don't worry, buy the end of the generation the PS3 will have comfortably outsold the 360 in NA.

Lots of Online shooters.

Most of people at my school loved all the shooters on Xbox, so when 360 was having a 1 year head start, it was a no brainer.

 haha thank you for the laugh

I disagree a WHOLE lot that anyone is buying it because it's American.

Americans by and large don't give a damn about where a product was made. I can't name one product Americans have bought over foreign products do to national pride.

Americans more then any other consumer buy based on perceived value. 

because it is an american and the ps3 is too expensive and halo and xbox live.

When the PS3 launched, it was a year late and cost $250 more. Americans don't care about the brand, they care about cost vs features.

Because of the higher number of high quality games and the less expensive console. Not to mention Sony was to smug and confident.

 Are... Are you actually serious?

Cheaper, better controller, better online, 5x the games, I wonder!