The 360 has successfully sold to who it appeals to.

There is no "deserved" to this at all.

I do not believe the XBOX 360 deserves any more or less sales than it gets. I am a firm believer in the laissez-faire perspective of markets. Products will sell precisely as well as they should sell, according to how well they are designed, marketed, and suited to the tasks they're used for.

The 360 certainly does not deserve greater sales than it has gotten. In the face of RRoD, it probably deserves to have sold less. Frankly, the fact that their brandname is stronger this generation than last proves that the hardwork the openning post points out is being rewarded by consumers. With as massive a mistake as they made with their hardware, that's a pretty huge improvement.

Brand perception is a big factor in this. If you ask anyone on the street, many more know of MS's wrongdoings (abusing monopoly powers) than Sony's (DRM rootkits, etc.). If MS achieves it's goal, which is to have a monopoly on the digital living room environment, people know that they will apply the same overpricing scheme that they do on OS and Office applications. They already do that with their proprietary accessories like hard drives and wireless adapters. Their practices in other businesses reflect consumers' purchase decision.

Making a business mission of just taking someone out of the competition without wanting to bring something to the competition does not usually work. Sony and Nintendo are constantly looking in new markets while MS is trying to emulate the PS2 from last generation.

That said, I do like what the Xbox 360 has to offer. But, I probably wouldn't get one if it weren't for the exclusive jRPG line-up because PS3 and PC offer everything else I want.

 QFT!!

No. I do appreciate the effort they put in for games - although I don't agree with their approach in some cases. But RROD was the result of rushing to market, plain and simple. MS may be used to patching SW, but HW should be built better than they built the 360 and I'm not willing to accept a high failure rate because MS felt it suited them to get to market first.

Hypothetically if they had no RROD they I would say 360 would have deserved better sales - I know I would have probably bought one if it hadn't been for RROD (well, and how noisy the first batch seemed - I don't know if its quieter now but when I heard one and saw the power brick, then heard about RROD my decision to get one was swiftly reversed).

I think its sold pretty much what it deserves - and to who it appeals to and who is willing to accept the RROD issue.

@ CGI-Quality ... " Why so serios? "
Is your ps3 2009 lineup weak ? Sony is focusing on profitability and brings you few great games? Deal with it.

@ Reasonable
The Falcon 360 has a special glue over the GPU made by Ati that keeps it to the motherboard so you don`t get rrod anymore. The end. Jasper with the price cut will be a killer deal for anyone who`s interested in a 360.

I would have to say no. They have spent plenty on getting the games onto the console, but really, it's a souped up Xbox. Halo 3 is Halo with more polygons, and that is all the 360 can do. If they hadn't very quickly discontinued the old Xbox, I'm not sure there's much reason to upgrade from one to another.

The PS3 (over PS2) brought online gaming, built in hard disc, wireless motion sensitive controllers, Blu-Ray and more. The Wii took a completely innovative avenue in turning away from the idea of just adding more power.

CGI-Quality - maybe you should take some valiums.

This

The economy supports products that do their job well, which the 360 does with it's online and great games library, and has it's following in market. Wii has a lower price and a unique user experience plus higher console reliability so it has a somewhat larger following due to consumers having a higher desire for it. PS3 is the most powerful console (and most expensive) with the highest specs and has Blu-Ray so it appeals to it's market.

Would 360 have had a bigger following without RRoD? Yes. But since that's as hypothetical as a $250 Wii HD or a $300 PS3 with 100% PS2 Backwards compatibility, such thoughts it must be ignored.

All three consoles have a fairly large following in the market due to their differences and it's been shown there is room for all 3 (shown by the fact that they all have fairly large market share). Does anyone here remember systems like the Jaguar or Pippin? They didn't have unique features and didn't do their jobs as gaming consoles well and as such they failed.