It's important to me because the 360 shouldn't even exist. The system should have tanked as bad as the Dreamcast, but Americans are so bloody stupid that they value social online gaming more than common sense.

The 360 has a failure rate that is embarrassing, and Microsoft is still laughing their way to the bank because their customers are so hooked on spending $50/year on Xbox Live that they refuse to abandon the 360 for a more reliable system with a marginally inferior online service.


However, this problem only seems to exist in the US, where the 360 is outperforming the PS3 by almost double; in just about every other region, the PS3 has outsold the 360 since release. Every time I look at console sales, I wonder what is wrong with the average American consumer, that they'd choose a piece of crap over a more reliable alternative. I want the PS3 to win because I don't want to be stuck with systems that break as often as laptop computers, plain and simple.

Clearly the UK feels like American, as I believe the 360 has roughly similar sales vs PS3, etc.

BTW I hope you're ready for some dissenting views!

Why do you people hate the Xbox 360? Because Sony shot themselfs in the foot this generation? Because Sony refused to pay for exclusives? Because Sony dosent know how to advertise there console even when its supposed to be superior?

Frankly I'm not really caring who 'wins'. Its actually pretty funny to see the 360 and PS3 fight so hard and spend so much money just to see who can win second place. And I tihnk this gen they've just been hurting each other. But the thing is, secretly I've always hoped that MS would drop out of the console race, because the quality of games were always much better back when it was just Sony and Nintendo (and to a lesser extent Sega) going head to head.

But even if MS dropped out, someone else would just come and replace them. Apple, Samsung, some third party gaming company trying to start their own product like EA, etc.

While true that the 360 is winning by quite a bit in the UK, the PS3 still has better numbers from a launch comparison. Meanwhile, the majority of Americans still prefer buying a broken 360 over a working PS3.

I always assumed that most people would at least attempt to be smart consumers, but apparently all logic was thrown out the window with the 360. The average consumer has, unfortunately, made it quite apparent to console manufacturers that they don't care about reliability. We've spoken with our wallets, and our wallets say we'd rather buy cheaper, malfunctioning hardware over more expensive, reliable hardware... provided the quality of the games is about equal.

And don't worry, I know many people will disagree with me. I know they'll exclaim that the 360 has an excellent warranty, superior online service, and great games, but they will all cry foul when Microsoft eventually discontinues their warranty.

To be perfectly honest though, Microsoft's survival despite the shortcomings of the 360 is great for the industry. The competition between Sony and Microsoft (and Nintendo) is really pushing the industry forward.

Nope, don't care about who beats what and where they all place.

When has Apple ever shown itself to be a force as far as videogames go?  Would you rather game on an iPod or a system made by Microsoft, Nintendo or Sony?

Not really important... Watching the wars, what both MS & SONY do to beat each other is more important to me.

The American consumer chooses 360 over PS3 because it has a great software library and Microsoft has done a great job of building the Xbox brand in North America. In Japan obviously MS has an uphill battle and it's not doing as well in Europe/Other though. Japan and Europe/Other is pretty much PS3's hope in their quest to get 2nd place. North America is a lost cause to Sony. The 360 has like almost double the install base over there. And Nintendo's install base there is almost triple that of the PS3. The Xbox's success barely has anything to do with price. A 20 GB PS3 was $500 at launch while the 20 GB 360 was $400. Only $100 difference. Add rechargeable batteries (or charge kits) and a couple years of LIVE and you're already at the break even point. The 360 has a smaller "down payment" but it is more expensive in the long run if you subscribe to live for several years.

You may or may not agree that the 360 has superb software but considering that the Xbox 360 is a software selling beast, it's hard to argue that it doesn't have a quality software library in the eyes of it's target audience (which is pretty much the same target audience of the PS3. Sony fanboys are just blind to that and try to convince themselves that 360 is a one-dimensional shooterbox even though shooters dominate both consoles now. Resistance is Sony's top selling first-party game and CoD4 is #2 LTD on the PS3. The PS3's best selling title to date is GTA4, which sold even more on the 360. The 360 game library is also much more diverse than the original Xbox) It sells almost as much software as the Wii in the Americas even though it has the install base disadvantage. And the attach rate is impressive. Even in Japan, the Xbox 360 has the highest attach rate (meaning that Japanese 360 owners are buying more games per capita than Japanese PS3 owners!) But of course no Sony weeaboo would ever admit that the Xbox 360 has killer software. Even though the mainstream PS3 owner is buying the same sort of games that 360 owners are buying.

I've had 4 360 that all broke within a year of launch. Didn't even bother sending it in the last time. i truly hate the 360 and want it to burn in hell