Installed base is the issue. Look at the percentage of people active in Xbox live and apply that to the mumbers activie on PSN (Buying+playing). NPD also stated that in 2008 the Xbox 360 had the most game time compared to the the Wii & PS3. The PS3's owner majority are all DVD buffs...not gamers. Based on sales the active gaming base is less than 1/4 of the installed base.

So how do you explain the higher attach ratio for GTA IV? And the higher games bought per consumer per year figure that the source showed in his recent analysis. And the fact that PS3 games mostly outsell Xbox games in others despite the Xbox's larger install base

ergh your the one coming up with the often "laughed at" misconception

so your the one who needs to prove the point not me

You strike a good point here with GTA selling over 5 M. However...it's a multiplat and it's the only game to do that. The 360 by now should have over 7 million sold. There is no PS3 exclusive ever to break 1/4 of the current installed base. The games that the PS3 usually outsells the 360 on have much lower numbers and obviously aren't of any care to the majority on the 360 and just so happen to the on the PS3. It doesn't excuse the low numbers, but still.

What misconception? What are the majority of the people who own PS3's doing with one if they aren't using one for gaming. I know i'm using mine for gaming solely. My friends dad who refused to buy him a PS3 finally broke the other day because my friend duped him into buying a PS3 because his dad needs a Blu Ray player. Funny enough, his dad will never let it out of his house, because thats his dvd player.

As many have patiently pointed out (including me) the PS3 does not have as many owners focused so exclusively on a relatively small number of genres.  As a result the 360 sells certain games exceptionally well (Gears, Halo 3, COD4) while only matching the PS3 on others and sometimes seeing a smaller attach rate for install base.

The PS3 sells a broad spectrum of titles well but isn't dominant in any one really (with perhaps the exception of GT and FF although that's to be proven).  Also, many owners (and those who haven't bought yet) are still waiting for their favourites to hit, like God of War, or a new Jak game, etc.  MS has done an excellent job of building out the 360 on the base of the Xbox as the console for formerly PC centric games (its no accident Halo was originally heading for PC before MS bought Bungie and altered its development trajectory as well as fostering titles such as Splinter Cell, etc).

The 360 sells a broad spectrum of titles as well, I think you should accept the fact that it's fairly even now on that playing field for the two systems.

To assume a majority of PS3 owners want it only for BR or DVD is unwarranted, and unless you can provide anything other than anecdotal evidence (i.e. your mates dad) then I doubt I nor others are going to take your point seriously.

Prove me wrong on this. No one has yet, so I want you to be the first to do it.

For example, I'm on my third PS3 (2 downed with the yellow light of unkown failure) and my friend is on his first 360, yet despite our anecdotal example the PS3 remains the console with the better track record for reliability - I'm just in the minority who are unlucky with their PS3's while my friend is in the majority of 360 owners with no problems.

What does this have to do with the sales of games?

The 360 will likely always outsell PS3 titles in certain genres, but as others have argued it hasn't proven yet it can sell a broad set of genres equally well (although it is improving on that score).

Of course it can. Alot of games will have legs for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 once the mass market get their hands on systems from both companies.

Look at the PS2 - it's success was never down to having a small number of massive sellers (such as Halo, Gears, etc) but instead by being the default console of choice across the broadest set of genres with good sales of games in each (a success the PS3 has failed to emulate so far).

Actually....it was. Sony had a monopoly on 3rd party titles, so they didn't have to worry about much. A small minority of those third party titles ended up being the face of Sony. Big mistake. Microsoft arrived and now Sony is doing what they should've always been doing much like Nintendo in focusing on first party titles. The reason The PS3 cannot emulate their PS2 value is because of Microsoft taking the 3rd party away from them. They were the powerful company beating up on little guys like Nintendo and Sega. What Microsoft is doing now is no different than what Sony did. Actually...it's nearly a mirror image. The only reason people aren't running to MS faster was because of RROD and the Microsoft name. Now that RROD has been dealt with it's selling quite smoothly. All they have to worry about are the first party titles and trust me, those are coming.