"The Xbox 360 may sell more software than the PlayStation 3, but there are many reasons behind that. Here is the truth about the software situation for each company and why one sells more software than the other.

Now as most of you know, Microsoft sells more software for the Xbox 360 than the PlayStation 3. Games like Halo and Gears of War are two of Microsoft’s top sellers for their console and have become very popular amongst the hardcore gamers. Sony on the other hand, continues to strive to have games hit a Gears number or Halo number, but there is more to it than meets the eye.

Take Halo for example, it broke sales records and was marketed as well as hyped to the masses. But the reason is: Microsoft’s install base from last generation revolved around Halo, and Halo only. It practically built the Xbox single handedly. Whereas Sony’s PlayStation 2 had a larger install base and that install base was chopped up into different fans of many different games like Socom, Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, God of War, etc. These are just a couple of the games that the fans bought the PlayStation 2 for specifically. These fans are waiting to get a PlayStation 3 for these titles this generation.

Coming into the new generation, Sony had not one game that the fans wanted. Being $600, there was no way people were willing to pay this much for a PlayStation 3 when all the games coming out soon were new IPs that was not well known. Halo was the one game 360 fans were all looking forward to until Gears of War was announced and released. Gears of War looked to be the next best thing, and it was going to be the solid game to buy while waiting for Halo 3. Now that Sony has released some of its fan based games such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gran Turismo 5, the price of the PlayStation 3 still seems too high to justify the purchase. I am not saying that Metal Gear Solid 4 or Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (being a large demo) did not sell well, but if the console was more affordable, they would have sold much more.

The reason Microsoft sells more software does include their install base but also includes each owner of each console having a different taste in games. Owning an Xbox 360 that wasn’t big on games last generation with the Xbox is obviously going to sell more software than a console that had a huge game selection in the previous generation. It is because most of those games that people loved last generation were on the PlayStation 2 and they are yet to release on the PlayStation 3 (not even including some of those that went multiplatform)."

So Microsoft does sell more software than Sony, and they should, but Sony is also selling really well considering they barely market their games, have a smaller install base than Microsoft, and is at a higher price point."

here is the link: http://www.thegameraccess.com/2009/02/the-truth-behind-sonys-software-sales/

what do you guys think??? do you guys agree or not?

i believe theres another factor of why the ps3 sell less software. i think its because a lot of games that are released on the ps3 are also released on the ps2 and most of the people buy them for the ps2 instead of buying them for the ps3 i think that hurts too the software sales and the hardware sales too. i think that the ps3 is a little overshadowed by the ps2 its stealling software sales from the ps3.

Xbox 360's software sales are bigger primarily due to the launch one year ahead of the PS3. It allowed MSFT to lock the sports and FPS crowds and these games see releases on a yearly basis, like CoD, Madden, NBA, etc.

This post explains pretty much everything you need to know.

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/post.php?id=1408706

well that is just one part of it. i think the ps3 sells games, well, its that the sales are not as front loded

so wait does that means the ps3 sells more software per console than the other two consoles? i dont know if i understand right i am dumb for these things.

M$ did it with Halo, Nintendo did it with Mario, but Sony has always said that they don't put all their eggs in one basket. The Sony "image" is that of gaming, not just a singular icon

This thread would be valid if Halo were the only game really showing great sales on X360.

Might want to take a look at the software sales charts.

While its true Halo is an Xbox mascot, its not the only game people are buying. Over 200 million xbox 360 games were sold so far.

Why are people always using this one year lead?  I remember even in the 1st year we had many new IPs selling very well.  Who would have thought Capcom's new IP's both sold more than a million within a month?  What about Ghost Recon, Rainbow 6? I just think the hard core gamers took to the 360 in NA and just bought games by the boatload.

That data is a few months old, but let's see what it says.

If we divide the Total Weeks of Ownership by the amount of software sold, then we should get the average number of weeks between new game purchases.  Note that the data is for the Americas only.

For the Wii:

TWO= 726,615,868
SW= 96,404,972

Number of weeks between software purchases= 7.54

For the PS3:

TWO= 306,414,307
SW= 42,770,884

Number of weeks between software purchases= 7.16

For the 360:

TWO= 975,218,977
SW= 126,016,630

Number of weeks between software purchases= 7.74

Conclusion:

In the Americas, through November of 2008, PS3 owners bought a new game about every 7 weeks on average.  Wii owners bought a new game about every 7 and a half weeks on average.  360 owners bought a new game about every 8 weeks on average.

That is very close.  That tells me that all three consoles are selling about the same amount of software after adjusting for differences in time of ownership and install base.