It should be dead. The PS3 however is still considered a cheap Blu Ray player though. Also noting that it paved the way through sales for Blu Ray players prices to be dropped instead of being expensive.

Ahh, that takes care of that annoyance. Now, on closing the gap. While it does look increasingly unlikely, the PS3 will likely pull ahead in worldwide weekly sales in 2009 as European 360 sales drop. I imagine as the American economy starts to get increasingly worse in 2009, the market will slow down and less and less hardware will be sold (meaning that the European market will grow increasingly important). Star Ocean 4 will be huge for the 360 in Japan, but the size of the market will make the increases fairly insignificant worldwide. The gap will still be very large by 2010, but as most people have predicted, it will probably outsell the 360 very late in the generation. Not really worth the effort for Sony, but at least the fans will end up with bragging rights.

The playstation 3 shall outsell the xbox360 after 2009

 I can think of a few members here who will spin it their way no matter how it ends up.

Okay, first - I'm using VGChartz numbers (seemed like you didn't understand).

Other than that. You are using US only, which is stupid. We know X360 has a higher AR in Americas.

Also, the 126M in software sales are wrong. You see, what he did, is take the WW X360 sales, multiply by 6.6, and claim they were U.S alone. So the number is higher than the WW sales actually are. Either that, or he is talking about Lifetime to date in the U.S Microsoft has reported about 140M shipped through Q2 08 (I believe). So he is simply mistating that, and he is far less credible than VGChartz data.

As for the graph, it is U.S only. So check your data before claiming mine is way off.

The only thing you guys are doing in this thread is twisting numbers in your own favor.

I've seen BS arguments from both sides.

My question is - how much does the software gap matter and why?

Aww come on! You can't mean that. Some of us have been trying to present the truth (or do you believe I too am spinning the numbers?).

They're pretty much dead on even in software pr console. The problem is - neither side is happy with that.

I don't want to get off topic much, but I will give you 3.

1) 10 or more of my real life friends have live as opposed to 1 on PSN.  And the one on PSN is always on live as well.  (the most important)

2) While it isn't as bad as it was when I first got my PS3, PSN disconnects me much more often while playing than live.  As for lag, both can be bad at times but most of that probably is my own connection.

3) Ease of use, I can talk to anyone or receive msgs on live at anytime no matter if they are in a different game or not.  And everyone has a mic.  (everyone having a mic is sometimes a bad thing)

These of course are from my expereince and I am sure you may have a different one.  I don't use PSN as often but things are improving maybe with Home things will get a lot better.  Since my xbox RROD I haven't had a chance to try the Xbox experience yet so this could also add another notch in favor of live.  I should be getting it back this week or early next.  Fingers crossed.

Oh crap, this thread was about software sales? That...almost never happens. Sony's main problem is that they've managed to snag the European market, but it's a market that's casual and more focused on hardware than software (the attach rates prove this). The American market, even when it loses in hardware, usually manages to move a great deal of game sales. Sony would need to close the gap in America by quite a bit, and I just don't see that happening.

Ok fine, most of you guys in this thread are twisting numbers...haha.

OP - Please don't tell me games are what you are talking about when you say "lack of content on PSN".