I think I have figured out why the attach rate for the 360 is so much higher then those of other consoles. As an employee of gamestop I have been able to observe some attributes of those who constantly come into our store looking to score a new game for the 360.

The Secret behind this is..............Achievements. It is as simple as that. Initially I took achievments as a joke and discarded it. Now I have realized that this little ability of the 360 is the key behind so many 360 users buying so many games. Even the craptacular games get decent sales because many 360 users are simply looking to boost their score. Case in point. A regular customer at my store comes in every few days to pick up a new game. He barely looks for quality through careful selection. He simply sifts through what he has played and what he has not played. Small factors such as the better of two games and price come into play but in the end he is only after achievements. This particular customer came in the other day to pick up Harry Potter for the 360........>_>! And then he continued to purchase games such as Blue Dragon, Alone in the Dark, etc, games known not to be that good. This man was not the last to do this even after my constant warnings.

While Achievements have appeared to be harmless, in the end they work to a very important advantage for MS. THey get customers to buy games, regardless of quality or popularity. Now I understand why Sony saught to follow MS in this regard within the PS3 Trophies. I must admit that trophies have gotten me to buy a few games that I normally would not have taken a second look at just to rack up some points. I purchased Super Stardust HD for this very purpose, as I also picked Uncharted back up for the same reason.

Well that may encourage gamers to buy more games, but how sad is it when you buy games just to get more points. WTF, wasn't gaming about the fun of games, rather than playing have the highest score, but not in the games but on a network where no one cares about you.

This even encourages shovelware to be produced. I will never understand people who play solely to get achievements.

Your right. Even games like WoW are getting into achievements, which is being added to the upcoming WOTLK expansion. People enjoy setting goals when gaming. "I am not going to hit the rack until I beat this freaking level". "I will post the highest score on a Live/PSN game". "I will hold the record for the fastest time on Mushroom Mountain in Mario Kart", ect. ect.

People enjoy public listed achievements/trophies as a way to say..."Hey, look what I have done". Does it work? Absolutely! Does everyone care? Not necessarily.

Yeah, that's it pretty much. It adds a lot of replay value as well, which is always a good thing in my opinion.

Just get a 360 or PS3, you'll know what it's all about...! ;)

@Soriku and Trestes

Think of it this way. What do most games get you in the end? Nothing but the satisfaction that you beat it, right. Older games in the Arcade ranked you according to how well you did. You would be judged beside your fellow game players.

It is like Achievements within it's self has become a game. Pokemon even. You gotta catch them all, or in this instance, gotta PLAY them all.

This is actually true, however most people that are true acheivment whores get gamefly accounts. I have a friend that blows through 3 games a week sucking up acheivments and sending them back. Has some problems if you ask me.

Well Cloud I find that to be an interesting observation.

I will agree with the first part of trestres' statement that it could encourage gamers to buy games, or at least until I rethink that and will say no, that would encourage gamers to rent RATHER than buy games.

Gaming, depending upon how you literize the term, probably is IN FACT the act of having the highest score. Having fun is just playing, and in the olden days getting any replay value out of a cart was trying to constantly beat your own score or someone elses.

I believe that XBOX360 has higher attach ratio for the same reasons that has been pointet out by others on this site as well as myself which is: Sony's Hardware sales are boosted largely because of Blu*Ray Compatability. It is more of a movie medium than a game medium thus far. Wii caters to budget watchers, families, casuals as well as gamers, so their attach ratio is in between. Some Wii owners like myself and others on this site have 1 to 2 dozen games. Most will probably have 3 or 4 games.

-edit-  wow I need to type/think faster

Achievements are a great feature. I didn't realize how fun they were until I got a 360. They're addictive. Many people buy multiplats on the 360 instead of PS3 simply because of achievements. If they weren't important, Sony wouldn't have copied them. Really, they're just a record of your accomplishments, but they're often humorous, and you can compare them directly to other friends who have played the same game. The compare games feature is also very important, and give achievements purpose.

IMO, achievements are great. For instance, I've considered renting King Kong the videogame because I hear it's 1000 easy achievement points. That's how far I've sunk, and I was the biggest achievement hater in the lot before I got a 360. Addictive.

@forevercloud: I don't think it works that way... People buy anygame available just to get their ranks up. It's not about who's the best gamer, but about who has the most money/time to play them just to get a crappy score up, that no one cares about. Can anything be sadder? Playing games just to get more points.

Achievements are awesome... It gives replay value to games that we've played to death and makes new games interesting after we finish them. There is an achievement in Street Fighter 2 on xbox live for 30 points if you don't lose a round and beat the game. I've beaten that game over 100 times yet every week i will still try to win without losing a round...just to say ive unlocked that achievement.