What I see in forums like this is theoretical discussions on what kind of titles companies should come out with.  Like, Sony needs to do a FPS a certain way to compete with Halo, Microsoft needs to do real JRPGs, Nintendo has to have a competitive FPS title.  These are discussed with serious manner, and critiqued.  My question is this: How much of this discussion is talk about strategizing for sales of a console, to get it to sell more, than it is an actual interesting BUYING a game?  In other words, how much bigger is the buzz than the buying from wallet.

Well this is a site made for sales data. It's almost like a sport, the competition between consoles. And it would be really hard to find someone not having a favorite, because why would you even be in this site if you didn't care how well things sold. So here more so than most places people very often discuss games they have no interest in buying or owning simply because they think they will help the sales of the platform of their choice.

Easy example to see this is the hype. Exclusives, even small ones, get more hype than mega blockbuster multiplatform titles, simply because they are exclusive. They can be used as ammo. Multiplatforms can't really be used as ammo.

By a huge margin, the most hyped for title this year is The Last of Us. But I guarantee you there are 5+ ps3 games that are going to sell more than it this year. Why all the hype for this title? Because it is exclusive, and a potential triple A new IP that might drive sales, and be used as ammo in the future.

I can only name 2

GTA 5

Call of duty

I don't see anything else outselling it "maybe god of war"

What I see a lot is fanboys who get all hyped for a new title and then the title doesn't sell. What that tells me is fanboys don't in any way represent the real consumer. For that reason I rarely give much thought to the kind of threads your talking about.

How much are you expecting The Last of Us to sell?

The Last of Us is hyped up for several bigger reasons than just being exclusive. It's a new IP from Naughty Dog who are very well respected on here. It's only natural that people would be excited for a new IP from who many consider to be one of the best developers of this generation. Also, we've actually seen gameplay and so far, the game looks great. 

Being exclusive is less important than what I've mentioned before. Which is why you don't see games like Ni No Kuni, One Piece Warrior, or Yakuza getting hyped unless the topic is meant to discuss exclusives.

For me, personally, a lot of the talk is in terms of business direction. I will say, for example, I believe that company x should make exclusive E for this or that business reason, even though I personally may not want to buy the game.

Typically I will say that for all 3 main players, but I tend to say what I think would be best for Nintendo since I generally root for their success. But remaining neutral I could propose good suggestions with regards to exclusives for all 3.

Fifa, Assassin's Creed, God of War certainly will. I'm sure there will be at least another big holiday announcement that will outsell it. Remember this is a new ip, it might go on to sell a lot, but certainly won't sell gangabusters its first year.

Perfect example, on vgchartz own Most Wanted list, The Last of Us, even considering multiplatform titles is in first place by a pretty big margin. In the real world it will be lucky to sell 1/7th of what GTAV will sell this year. That is what you call exclusive hype.

Well in the forum echo chambers people really do buy a lot of titles however they are completely dissimilar to the wider public. So pleasing the people on the forums is probably the exact reverse of what any company ought to do.

Many people on this site would rather converse about what direction the company should go in. This is a sales website after all. We will be talking about what Company A should do and what Company B should not.

I can see people buying what they see needs to be created though. It's not like it doesn't appeal to us.