Mwah, until the 360 isn't somewhere around 40 million units or more (I think more or less the userbase that warrants 3rd party exclusives) I'm sure 3rd parties will mostly make games for PS360, not exclusive for any of these.

PS3 owners ironically have to be very happy with the healthy 360 sales, since it stops Wii from taking even more marketshare over the combined HD share.

 I'm trying to move away from excuses and in to the reality, it's not selling well for what it is. The PS3 is designed at this point to be a mass market commodity available to anyone in the developed world who can be bothered to scrimp and save for it.

Its losing that "luster", and markedly so in a matter of a couple of months. The Xbox 360 decreasing its price has somehow not just changed the public opinion of the Xbox 360 but also that of the PS3. I'm sure the recession hasn't helped too.

Point being that brand name doesn't come easy, and the PS3 is tossing its one ace away that is "brand name".

There still needs to be a strategy!

Sega relied on its brand name too heavily with the Saturn, Nintendo did with the n64 and Gamecube.

 No

http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=PS2&reg1=All&cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=PS&reg3=All&weeks=156

Its selling well enough.. the ps2 was 299, the  ps3 is 399

we don't worry about the wii at all, at all. It's in a different level yet i dont see it yet as a real competition. When I lose call of duty and big games that i care about to the wii, then I will worry.

It's not "okay", it sucks.

The PS3 is a great platform, with great exclusives, and frankly, when you discount the purchase price, its easily the best console of this generation.

Its crappy that its so expensive, and that, mostly for that reason, its in "3rd place". The same fate befell the XBox last generation, relative to the PS2, in many ways. As gamers, we can all hope that 3rd party devs will be willing to put in the same kind of effort that 1st party devs do, in making games for it... but they won't until the cost is justified.

The reason people say "its okay" is because Sony has lost a lot of money, and no self-respecting gamer wants to see them drive themselves out of business by chopping the price before they can afford to. Sony has a lot of great incoming exclusives this year, and as long as the casual Wii monster doesn't utterly crush the X360 and PS3, Sony will very likely do just fine this year, because they'll almost assuredly have a pricecut (IMO).

What else is there to do, as a gamer, when economy dictates that the best platform have the least marketshare, other than look on the bright side?

I always thought the answer was pretty simple: the 360 helps keep the PS3 alive.

Just look at the sales of the biggest HD games this gen has produced: GTA IV, CoD4/WaW, Assassin's Creed, etc. The PS3 has a huge portion of these sales, and as long as that doesn't change, things should be fine. The PS3 userbase will probably be nearing 30mil by the end of next year, which is easily enough to justify porting HD games onto it.

You listed many failed consoles, but didn't mention the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. That system was stuck in second place, yet had a decent lifespan (could've been longer if Sega didn't screw it up), and the PS3 is on track to outsell it within the next 2 years.

 I doubt SONY was happy with the 360 sales especially when MS taking PS3 3rd party exclusives. The only option I can think of was for SONY to pull ot PS3, again, not to incite flame here but Im a PSX and PS2 fan and PS3 is hurting the Playstation brand in general...

@cord

I disagree if the 360 wasnt here, the ps3 would have a much larger install base..

The ps3 is the best console sony has ever made, if people dont care, then oh well then, its there loss for not getting it.

Thank you BengaBenga

That is the answer I was interested in without actually thinking. The number where 3rd parties think "hang on a minute, is it really worth us doing the effort for both?"

What do you think the PS3 would have to be at if the Xbox 360 was at 40mil for it to start showing in terms of games that should be multiplat - not being so?

Just as an example

I know a few people say that due to the cost of HD development this gap would have to be much wider than in previous generations?

Does everyone agree with this? Or does the issue of cost for developing on the PS3 as has been voiced by some developers, although not directly I hasten to add, counter balance this?