This gen had xbox's name written all over it. They dominated nearly every aspect yet somehow they are third - or close second.

I'm not saying they failed this gen - far from, but how did they not dominate (of at least playstation)

DA LIST (Feel free to add) of why xbox deserved to win!
- They released around a year earlier than playstation, so they had a year off being the only next gen console available.

- They had captured a lot of Sony's exclusives!

- Easier Hardware to work with
(and even though it was considered ever so slightly weaker than ps3, multiplats were equal if not better on 360 games)

- They had MULTIPLE IP's that sold in the multi-millions! Halo Fable Forza GOW. They didn't have many IP's that sold 1 or 2 million unlike quite a number of PS3's.

- A universally accepted better controller.

- They won the motion control war (against SONY, but hell, everyone lost that didn't they?)

- They had exclusive deals with the BIG games (COD, Skyrim)

- Minecraft for a year and a half before Sony
(I mean it sold flippin 10 million on 360, thats like alot of mountain dews!)

- Strong(er?) marketing
(I turn on comedy central and every day I was told buy a 360 for this or that, didn't see PS3 too often)

- More focus on products than Sony
(Well the hardware and entertainment division only needed to focus on 360 games (sometimes PC) whereas during 360's lifetime Sony had to handle games and hardware for PS2, Ps3, PSP and PsVita)

- Sitcoms and many other tv programmes, when they play games - it's 85% of the time (YES 85) xbox 360. Big Bang Theory with their Halo night, south park always said/had 360's, even Breaking Bad (Which is made by Sony Pictures) when Jesse is playing with that little kid.

- Games almost always shown off on 360's at press events (or PC's with 360 controller, still brand recognition for xbox)

- Cheaper price at launch compared to PS3 (599 US Dollahs! <3 KAZ)

- They seemed to make exclusive deals with indie games that sold Mega! Minecraft, fez, mark of the ninja, super meat boy, braid.
(Well four of those devs have had bad things to say about MS (not specifically xbox) in the past, and two of them are making (timed?) exclusive ps4 games

MORE TO COME BRO!

But somehow they didn't dominate....

Any theories?

This ^

SO-Knee's list
- Better hardware (even if mostly unused)

- Arguably better exclusives 

- More exlusive gamers from WWS and more diverse range of games

- New IP's

- Massively better visuals and graphics for most first party games

- Japanese domination

- Strong brand through two previous generations of 100 million + selling consoles.

More coming brah

Not part of the OP, but has anyone else noticed Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo all did very well on their second console and then Sony/Nintendo went completely downhill on their third console, yet to know if the same will happen to Microsoft.  Anyway OT only thing I can come up with is the games, 360 had strong support early on, but slowly it dwindled away more and more.

Cause MS went... LoL greed. Give me all dem $$

And Sony went... Shit, we are sucking hard, we gotta step up our game or else we will run out of business

and Nintendo Went... LoL greed...

1.) Hardware failures early on
2.) Japan doesn't like foreign products
3.) Microsoft not well established in European countries like Sony
4.) Wii took casuals by storm
5.) Didn't have blue ray like PS3
6.) People buy Playstation based on pure habbit just because that's what they're used to even though the xbox might be better.
/thread

You're saying that the 360 went wrong when MS almost tripled its user base and with the help of a ps3 launching at 4billion pounds it halved the user base of the ps3 in comparison to the previous generation? What are you smoking OP?

Xbox 360 did most things right. Strong software and big problems were addressed.

The only thing that bugged me throughout the life of the 360 is the expensive HDDs.

Sony's Playstation brand has more worldwide gaming appeal then MS's Xbox, that is all..

- X360 didnt't have many interesting games for a Japanese audience (therefore a huge gap there)

- X360 did better in the west

- X360 had the better exclusives in the first half of the generation, PS3 in the second half

- Sony had Blu-ray

- "PlayStation" is still a bigger brand than "XBOX"

MS was quite successful, they did so much better than in the 6th generation.

who says the 360 went wrong?

they had almost 4x growth GenOverGen. that's pretty good. wrt to domination, the thing 360 did "wrong" was be in a market with fiercely, awesome competition. sony and the playstation are awesome at what they do.