I buy more PSN titles than PS3.

"I didn't want to make a definitive statement" EXACTLY , no definitive statements can be made about what we're discussing . Even if we agreed that there was a high probability that X had a more diversified userbase than Y it still wouldn't be defintive , we could still be entirely wrong . I don't know the exact answers , i'm not sure how your so convinced you know the answer , we don't have sufficient information which make can make those kind of definitive answers with.

"Just look at some of the Nielsen charts and see how the Wii has more female users and more young users than either of the HD consoles. No different from the PS2."

Those surverys are heavily open to scrutiny , don't they tend to use very large samples and aren't they based in one geographical area ( North america ?) . Also are you arguing diversification in the actual people ( in terms of age , sex ) or diversification in terms of taste in games ? one might have an affect on the other but they aren't strictly related.

"The common sense to realize that with a much larger demographic, there is more diversity. The PS2 had more users from various countries. It was popular in nations where the other consoles were almost unknown. The...demographics...were...more...varied."

For one the PS2 has userbase sizes which far exceeded that of it's rivals , the % differences in userbase sizes aren't as big as they were last generation .Also I don't think that any of the consoles are like the PS2 , the Wii for one is marketed in a very  different way , this generation shares some similiarities to last gen but I believe this one is very different. Please stop apelaing to "common sense" , it's an artificial (created) concept, one that can be twisted to meet the needs of anyones argument.

"It seems you're trying to argue that my point isn't always true, whereas all I'm saying is that the majority of the time it is true and it's been true for every console so far."

I'm arguing that your point isn't always true and may very well not be true here , i'm also arguing you have no way of definitivley prooving your point . This generation like I said earlier is very different from earlier generations .

I don't see anything in either the 360's or PS3's software figures to suggest was in inherently more varied across demographics than the other. Most multiplatform games sell at a similiar rate across both platforms relative to each console's userbase. A few newly multiplatform titles have shook things up a bit, but that's to be expected because of brand ties and many gamers being second generation gamers or longer. The exclusive game library of both consoles is very similiar in many ways and there is much diversity in both lineups going down the sales.

The only thing I do find a bit funny, which I remember mentioning yesterday in the chatroom, is that COD4 has outsold GTA IV on the 360, but it's vice versa on the PS3.

@NinjaKido

You said that there are data we don't know. And of course the first thing we don't know exactly is how the game genre preferences are in the global population (that would be the "parent distribution").

When a certain number of people buy a console they are sort of moved from the heap of general population to the smaller heap of persons who own that console. How genre preferences are distributed inside the owners population depends by the parent distribution and by the process with which they are moved. Practically it will happen when they buy the console, or one is given to them as a gift :) In statistical terms this is called a "sampling" of the parent distribution, to create a new "child distribution".

All this to say that indeed we don't have enough data, but we know that only very special parent distributions and very special buying patterns would leave the owners' demographic unchanged among all possible ones. So we may assume that it won't happen because it becomes almost impossible when we increase the owners' base (this would be the exponential part)

But I was not trying to quantify how much it would diversify, and if you slow down the process it is indeed gradual.

My point was only saying to kowenicki that what MontanaHatchet rightly called "common sense" is effectively a statistical phenomenon, even though kowenicki was debating that it was not an absolute logic certainty.

I hope to have been clearer.

yeh...the diversed argument is pretty lame!!!

I think Kurtosis would be more useful than standard deviation for your purposes. It will give you a measure of the "bunching" of the distribution.

^Indeed, but I only have a basic spreadsheet on this laptop :)
Anyway even the sigma gives a basic measure of variability, given the extremely low number of points.

find the answers in the Question...

I feel the PS3 demografix is more diverse than the X360 but it still dont answer why the overall attach rate of the PS3 is so much worse than the X350.

Why would a wider demografix buy a less total amount of games?

One answer could be in the thread where theRepublic proposed to consider a different measure rather than the static attach rate, to take into account the effective times the owners had to buy their games.

It makes sense to me.