I overall agree with the general feeling. I would guess the RROD? Blu-Ray? The strength of the Wii and the PS brand?

But still, it sold, like, 80 million (though a part of it came from late Kinect adopters), so it's alright.

Help me wrap my head around this.  

1st bolded:  You're saying that the "Shooter Box" as some have dubbed it started getting different types of titles for Kinect and, as a result, people who played Call of Duty on Xbox 360 went to the PS3 for Call of Duty despite Call of Duty still being on Xbox 360?  Even though, in the USA (where Xbox reigned supreme) the Xbox 360 continued to outsell the PS3 every year?

2nd bolded:  And you're also implying that Kinect, the device that was hailed as the fastest electronic thingy to ever sell 10 million units and actually made the Xbox 360 outsell the PS3 for the first time EVER is a bad thing?  I mean, Kinect helped Xbox 360 so much that they kinda made it the focus of their follow up console....

I mean PS3 dominated Xbox 360 virtually everywhere outside of the USA.  It was inevitable that the PS3 would outsell the Xbox 360.  With Kinect, a year's headstart, and a lower price, the Xbox 360 was able to hold on to second place for several years.  The PS3 vs 360 should have been a blood bath!  The PS3 had Blu Ray, was more powerful, had free online, etc.  Instead, Rocky Balboa went head to head with Appollo Creed and (*Spoiler*) even though he lost, he hung in there until the final round.

And maybe (3rd bolded) the perception of superior online, superior multi-plats, capable hardware, a year's head start, Kinect (which wasn't a liability), the perception of superior controller, etc. helped a little bit?  Maybe Sony made a lot of mistakes and the media getting behind Xbox 360 helped as well.  Price couldn't be the ONLY reason, could it?

I think they did 90% right. They played a hell of a hand and the project has been a HUGE success in every way but one.

The only real problems are the RROD fiasco and a lack of JP sales.

Brilliant hardware sales. Brilliant software sales. Long life cycle. Huge sales increase on Xbox. Huge marketshare increase on Xbox. Xbox Live grown by a WHOLE lot. Brand stronger than ever.

The only real thing I could criticise them on with the 360 is the lack of exclusive new IP that interests me over the last few Years.

Outside of RROD and completely abysmal or non existent Japanese sales, I'd say they did everything right. Losing to PS3 doesnt automatically mean you did something wrong

I think he means in the sense that nobody would've gave those accolades a chance at all had it not been for the initial grosteque, unexpected price of the PS3, it's naive to say it was the only reason, sure, but it was without a doubt the stem at the very least, I mean, the original Xbox was the biggest laughing stock in my school playground by quite some margin, on about a 5:1 ratio, you'd hear: hur-hur, Xbox is such a stupid name for a console, the controller sucks (well, the first controller was a travesty no matter what way you slice it, but this persisted even after the release of the S controller) online gaming is for nurdz and just a fad... some 10 years later, they now welcome these things with open arms, despite the original Xbox having an arguably larger advantage over the PS2 in most of those categories.

But man, if I ever stumble across a time machine in my lifetime, I know one of the first places I'll be headed.

Xbox came in 2nd/3rd this past generation because...


1: Early Xbox 360 failures scared casuals away. 54 percent failure rate for first 25 million. How many of those are in a landfill now?
http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/08/17/report-xbox-360-failure-rate-reaches-54
2: At the time the price was still too high for any game console.(at least one without bluray)
3: Xbox brand before 360 was not solid...and with the RROD still not solid after. xbox360 screwed a lot of poor gamers over. #brandkiller
4: Xbox like Apple does not know how to compete well in a market place. They should have lowered prices and pushed updated consoles faster.(they STILL have a 4gb model to sell???!!)
5: Halo/gears of war were poor titles at bringing hardcore FPS over from PS3
6: Customers know when they are getting nickel and dimed (xbox live vs free anyone?)
7: PS3 has been and is thee most active played/sold console for the past 4 or 5 years. (remember more then half original xbox360s sold are sitting in a landfill.

I'm sure there are more reasons...but when you look at the polls at why people didn't buy the 360...it speaks for itself...and then when you walk into any gamestop or used game store...There are usually a large amount of xbox360s available along with signs..."we are not taking anymore xbox 360s in trade"....and if they do take them in trade they only will give you 20,40 or 60 bucks. Dumping an xbox360 and going to a PS3 was like getting an upgrade to most people.

I don't know...55 percent failure rate on the first 30 million consoles sold that have virtually no profit margin is not a success in any way shape or form.

I felt you should have seen this coming. Japan was never going to accept 360 from my understanding most of those "exclusives" were going to end up on PS3 anyway and that was known by most. Looking at is from a Japanese gamer perspective why waste money on a console you dont want for a few games that you know will come on the console you own/want with enchaned features?

MS created it, PS3 became more appealing value though it was always the better console. This thread was created, started strong but ended weak relieing on halo, gears, and cod/cod dlc to get them through the last leg of the gen, and not providing any real exclusive games or value at the final stages of the 7th gen.

Well THIS, I can't argue.  Really killed it for Microsoft.  People I knew that weren't even really gamers knew about the RRoD.