The isn't some real surprise, but it highlight our important the development of XBL has been to M$'s chances in the console market.  360 owners love to play online, and hte environment allows for that in some many ways.  It's going to be interesting to see how M$ plans to evolve the service in the coming years, and into the next console:

"At 50 percent, Xbox 360 remains the console online gaming leader, despite the noteworthy changes among other major console systems. For example, use of Nintendo's Wii increased from 18 percent in 2008 to 29 percent in 2009, while PS2 fell dramatically and PS3 moved up from fifth place to third place. This is a testament to the strength of Xbox 360, both overall, and particularly in the online gaming sphere. "

http://www.planetxbox360.com/article_5944/NPD_Group_Says_Xbox_360_Is_the_Console_Online_Leader

Obviously. The ps3 has made a lot.. A LOT or progress over the years, but it's still not as nice or as easy to use as xbox live is. Plus they have stupid problems like in KZ2 where you can't see if your friends are online if they're playing single player. Anyone who cares about online probably owns a 360.

Really? At all? That sounds incredibly stupid. What if you're just tooling around on single player while waiting for your friends to get on to do some multiplayer?

XBL is a lot of hype. You can get people to pay for things they can get for free if you hype them up enough. Remember the pet rock? Same concept. Microsoft needs to keep the hype on high for XBL as PSN grows. Remember the fate of live for Windows.

Asking people to pay for live for windows on top of an xbox live was stupid from the start.  Trying to compare that with xbox live itself is silly.  I do wonder what the future holds though.  Will PSN charge next generation or will M$ make their service free?  Who knows.  I'm glad PSN is free though, because there's no way i'd pay for two online services just to play KZ2 and mgs online.

And yes, when you're playing single player while online you appear offline to people in your friends list.  To be a little fair, this isn't sony's fault directly.  Guerilla games did this one purpose for some reason.  This may have been changed recently though, as I havn't played KZ2 for about a week.  Too many other games have come out recently, it's nuts.  Anyways, the fact that sony even allowed them to do something that stupid is the problem though.  I doubt that kind of thing has ever happened on the 360.

Its how Microsoft makes up for losses.

 I have to disagree. PSN isnt bad at all for it's length of time as a service.

But Live is alot more. Not only is it very much trouble free, but far easier to use. Also it has ALOT more content on Live than any other service. Those thinking it doesnt are kidding themselves.

But Sony have done tremendously well to put in place what they have. I say well donr to M$ for providing a service so good for consoles. But also Sony for achieving what they have.

i love xbox live. There's something for everyone, as long as you have the money to spend.

Yes you can, its called XMB.  You can see what any of your friends are doing.

PSN is just as good as XBL apart from the lack of dedicated servers in CoDs, so you can't see your friend's stats if they are offline, but PSN makes up for that by being free