Double post. 

I agree to a certain extend mainly that yeah most owners want their system to do well as they did just spend money buying one but at the same time I think many gamers own or are planning to own multiple systems once the prices are right.  Obviously we both making assumptions though I think mine are alot more reasonable and realistic so we basically just disagree.  You think the 360 will come in third and I think the PS3 will. 

I personally could careless how well the PS3 does as I have enjoyed the games I have played on the 360 and look forward to other games coming out in the future.  Again personally I am not looking forward to mgs4, final fantasy 13 or killzone 2.  You know what is the only game that truly intrigues me right now that I wish I had a PS3 for? Warkhawk.  By all means let the PS3 take off and sell like hot cakes so maybe MS can drop the price and I can afford to buy one for my brother so he can enjoy the games I been playing and we can play together. 

As I see it.  The PS3 has been selling as many units as the 360 did in it's first 11 months.  Add to this the FACT that the PS3 has only been on the market in Europe for 7 months and has had competition from both the Wii and the 360, when the 360 had no direct competition.

Also, you mention the lack of 3rd party titles for the PS3.  I agree, but you also have to admit that many announced 3rd party titles are now multiplatform for both the 360 and PS3.

The one advantage the 360 has over the PS3 in multiplatform titles is the general fact that 360 versions of the games are generally better, but this will stop sooner rather than later.  Delayed versions of Oblivion and Rainbow Six Vegas are generally received as better on the PS3 and the soon to be released COD4 is rumoured to be better on the PS3 than 360.  Seeing as the PS3 is 12 months behind the 360 in development terms, we will start to see better multiplatform games appearing next year.

Also, one thing that you fail to mention is 1st party games and exclusives.  It is a generally known FACT that Microsoft have to pay for their exclusives...see $50m for exclusive extra content for GTA4 whereas Sony have MGS4 and FFXIII in their bag "at the moment" without the need for cash.  Also the PS3's in house development teams as well as dedicated exclusive development teams seem to easily out number Microsoft's.  Look at the release of Bungie and the demise of the exclusive PGR deal with Bizzare.  I do understand that MS has been trying to free up cash and maybe they'd rather go down the exclusive route than forking out hundreds of millions on studios (See RARE)....but exclusivity deals will cost them dearly.  If Rockstar took $50m for an extra level in GTA4, then imagine how much Konami and Square would ask them for rights to MGS4 and FFXIII?

By looking at this information, I can see nothing other than the 360 coming 3rd this generation.  They currently own NA and are fighting evenly with Nintendo and Sony for Europe (although it's really in the UK that the 360 is popular, not the other Euro countries).  And Japan is a joke....!!! 

Japan is not a joke--its wii Ds zilla over there---and even if the ps3 is selling as well as the 360 did in its start that does not matter--the 360 is selling loads better then the ps3 right now--and as long as that keeps up it wil stay ahead of them

And what about the people that have both systems?  Is there some hidden agenda there?

I completely agree with the original poster, and I have zero interest in seeing either console beating out the other since I have both.  Either way, I'll get the exclusives where ever they come out on.

@davygee

"Sony have MGS4 and FFXIII in their bag "at the moment" without the need for cash" Is that true? Not like sony would come out and say such a thing. Do you really care that MS is using their wealth to buy games so that the owner fo their system can enjoy them? That 50 million from gta doesn't come out of my pocket yet I get to have a more complete version of GTA4. By all means go ahead MS and even SONY pay up and get those those exclusives for your gamers.

In terms of selling like the 360 you forgot to mention what another PS3 supporter mentioned which is the SONY brand. Most of the PS3 sales came in at launch from the loyalist, hardcore and those that want the latest thing. After selling over 100 million PS2 you would think the PS3 would have passed the Wii and 360 by now. As you mentioned here in the states it is getting killed every month since launch even with the price drop and the rrod stuff it couldn't pull a month to win. I just don't get how people say they are selling the same when it hasn't made up any ground.

I didn't say the PS3 lacked 3rd party support in fact seems to have about the same as the 360 but the 360 versions as you mentioned come out sooner and basically have the biggest sales. Of the games you mentioned that came out later though they might have been slightly better and why wouldn't they be since they had extra time to polish it how close where they to the 360 version in terms of sales. Back in the PS2/xbox multiplatform days the xbox version was usually better yet the PS2 would sell more but at least those came out at the sametime. Even if they do eventually decide to come out at the sametime the 360 should sell the best similar to the PS2 even if the PS3 somehow has more stuff.

Going back to the 1st party exclusives or 1st/2nd party developers if the games are crap or do not interest me what is the point. Again is one of those we just disagree. I still think the PS3 will be third even with everything you said. We will see how things turn out.

Another thing people fail to take into account when they say PS3 is selling at the same rate as 360 when 360 was released is the fact that in the 1 year 360 was the only console on the market it had the gorilla sized shadow of the PS3 hanging over it. Tons of people would have decided not to buy a 360 because they were waiting for PS3. However, now that PS3 is out alot of people that had been waiting for a PS3 would have decided it's too expensive and/or not all that great and decided to go for a 360 instead. So it's very possible that the sales gap between 360 and PS3 will increase rather than decrease.

 I agree with this statement, and also think it's faulty logic to assume that 1st year sales for consoles released in the same generation, but non-concurrently are directly comparable.  The fact is, what 3rd party developers see when they look at the two consoles is the fact that they're fairly similar in terms of power, and the 360 has more than 200% of the userbase and 25 million-selling games (most of which are third party) vs. 2 million-selling games (both first/second party).  They see flagging sales and a bad media image.  They don't pull up charts and compare how the first years did, respectively, and your average consumer will flock to the system that has the most games that appeal to them - and the fact is, no matter how you cut it, the 360 has a one-year advantage on the ps3 in that respect.

 Before anyone brings up the huge libraries and install bases of significantly older consoles, remember that a) most gamers who want those systems have them, and b) the sense of newness about current-gen vs. past-gen consoles sells a lot of games.

@etuoyo

Good point about the first year for the 360 people waiting on the PS3 to come out. The other reason was price and shortage in the initial months. Another thing to keep in mind is that the 360 has had many failed systems as my cousin and I are on our third 360. Besides all this they are still twice as many sold worldwide to this date.

areseris, from what I know not much people bought two or more video-game consoles in the same year, though even the one’s that have all the consoles have a favourite.

Still, in my opinion the Xbox 360 has two big problems. The first is that it is the successor of a console that wasn’t popular among the mainstream gamers and the second and just like the original Xbox is that games like Halo overshadow the whole line-up, perhaps because they put too much hype in it.

If you think of Playstation, it can be everything. Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, R&C, Gran Turismo, Singstar etc, and the Xbox 360 is mainly associated with shooters like Halo 3, Gears of War etc…

In all the polls that I have seen, the PS3 is also more popular or wanted than the Xbox 360, and by some groups (males above 13) even more than the Wii.

The image that the Xbox 360 has, is perhaps too hardcore.