Why would you think that?

no no it's the arcade, m$ confirmed they can't keep up with the arcade sales.

and in america the arcade alone outsell the ps3.

and ps3 its selling better than last year, but no big rise yet due the price.

It's because there isn't enough difference between the library of the 360 and the PS3 to justify the purchase of the more expansive. That's why people wanted Little Big Planet to be huge because it's the game that distinguishes the Ps3 the most from 360.

Simple. Why pay $200 more for less?

If gamers only care about games...Why in God's name would you spend $100-200 more for a system that has a far worse library?

And for the good maths: It's NOT the 'economic crisis'. If that was the case, everything would be down - why is it then, that every other system is up by so much? The crisis is doing nothing. Sony cut their own throats with the pricepoint it's at. No one wants to buy the worst system on the market for the most cash, when the Wii has far more casual appeal, and the X360 is so much cheaper for a better library.

And this trend will continue until Sony drops the price. The X360 will lead the PS3 by 2:1 in sales until Sony cuts the price.

I think more troubling for Sony is that PS2 sales can't pick up the slack this year and the PSP is under performing in the US and Europe.

Actually the economy is part of it.  It's too simplistic to assume 'everything' would be down.  What you see in econimic recessions is that where people do want to purchase, they will go with price as the deciding factor.  Also entertainment tends to sell well during recession.  So what we're seeing is a switch of purchasers to 360 due to price (as well as other factors).  This isn't just happening to PS3/360 but in other categories of merchandise as well.  Normally the higher price item loses out as those with the money to afford it decide to spend less and hang onto more money instead.

its expensive =/
at this point you can get 2 360s for the price of 1 ps3, so..

It's about a parent's perception. This is my take:

A parent walks into a retailer to buy a console, maybe even their kid asked for a PS3. The parent sees the 360 Arcade is half the price and asks the sales person the difference. The sales person explains Blu-ray, hard-drive, 10 year lifespan, etc. The parent asks about the games. The sales person explains that they more or less have the same library, but points out that the 360 comes with kids games bundled with the console saving the parent another $60.

The parent decides to buy a 360 Arcade. The sales person sees s/he lost the upsale to the PS3, but trys again(for the kids sake) to get a better sale. The sales person explains how if the parent has or is looking to get an HDTV soon that they should get the Elite which comes with the HDMI cable, a HDD, and other extras. The parent is either sold on the elite or walks out with the cheap Arcade unit (with the 2 extra games)

Can anyone working at a retailer recount their experiences with game sales this holiday?

so wait...of the 100% of sales you acknowledge 50% are arcade...thus 50% is divided among the pro and elite SKU's....and it decimates....whos argument again? SERIOUSLY.

are you really this ignorant. 2 pages ago in this thread the 60gb sku sold way more according to you...then when its 50/50 youre saying the article being used to disprove your non factual gibberish about the 60gb sku "decimates" the arguement?

360 sells twice as much as the PS3, so if half of those sales are arcade, and you just acknowledged it whats your point and or argument now?

Why would people buy an arcade and a hard drive? So thus, my logical, sony fanbot mind, if you will, has to wonder outloud if maybe the $199 price point isnt really capturing potential 60gb sales since if you want a harddrive theres really no point in spending the money on buying one seperately....so you cant argue with a straight face or any amount of certainty that folks buying the arcade would be buying the pro if it werent available for cheaper......do you follow me?

Trying to imply that the PS3 is "less" or "the worst" is nothing more than you trying to take a cheap shot at the PS3. Which console is better or worse is nothing but opinion, which does nothing to address the thread title. Besides, if the PS3 really is the worst, then the 360 isn't much better as its sales aren't going to be that far ahead of the PS3 after the holidays are over(and may not be ahead at all after the PS3 receives a price cut) and it's still being destroyed by the Wii which will continue for the forseeable future. But you're not going to talk about that, are you?

Things like video games do well in a recession because people want cheap entertainment to take their mind off of the shite state of affairs. When people have less disposable income and/or want to save money during hard times, they're going to go for the cheaper options, which means the higher and highest priced options are going to lose out. If not for the recession, the price difference between the PS3 and 360 wouldn't mean as much, but now that every dollar counts that much more, the price difference is augmented that much more. Anyone(even people like you who like to bash the PS3 on every possible occassion) should be able to see that.