Dont worry or get your hopes up. Microsoft wont be dropping out of the market for a while now... If ever. Nintendo is the fad right now. Just let the hype die and you'll see. As for me, if I had to pick ANY system that was going off the market, Id say Sony. But thats a guess and I doubt it would happen.

One more thing: Batman: Arkham Asylum charted #1 360 and #2 PS3 (see, adjacent positions) for its first 3 weeks of release in the UK.  Then the PS3 Slim launched.  And the PS3 version has outsold the 360 version every week since.  So, not a good example.

and lots of people buy 360's as door stoppers, provide facts or both comments are bs.

I think the reason for the ps3 leading in them two regions is the current price and the games it currently has or are soon to be released, but mainly the price.

I don't think it has anything to do with the japanese being xenophobic or nationalistic, nearly every country is to an extent.

why should he, we all know it's true,...kind of like how a lot of 360s are used as landfill fillers.

I'd say in Japan it's less about xenophobic/nationalistic concerns and more about brand pedigree.

Xbox left a terrible taste in people's mouths there, it was basically considered a big, ugly, yoge machine that scratched your discs and had support dumped by most within it's first year. 360 was coming from a position of playing defense well before it even released.

PlayStation 1/2 however were the dominant, nearly ubiquitous platforms that had something for everyone. Sure, Ds basically came in a took that crown, but PlayStation still has a hugely positive brand image.

It's not just the games or pricepoints or features, I'd say those elements are basically interchangable between the HD twins. It's about the brands, PlayStation was a massive success and Xbox was a massive flop, and their successors had to work their way from those positions to wind up where they are today.

Yeah I think you could be right about brand recognition being the main factor for success for japanese products in japan, but you only have to look at the recent success of the ps3 in others after the release of the 'slim' and the price cut combined with some v.good games to see the affect it had. 

Me personally this is my first PS console, I was an Xbox,GC & Dreamcast owner, so I have absolutely no brand loyalty, it was just a question of price and games and PS3 was my choice, might get a 360 eventually because I believe its an excellent machine.

Oh sure.  But I'd also say that the PlayStation brand image was how PS3 was able to mount such a mini-recovery this year off those good moves.  If 360 would've done the exact same things instead (slim, huge pricedrop, FFXIII, etc), it wouldn't have had nearly the same effect.  If PS3 had gotten 360's early JRPG lineup instead, it would've also surged farther earlier.  This isn't because the Japanese love Japanese and hate American, it's because the Japanese love PlayStation and hate Xbox.

I'd argue SW sales are an indication of the alignment of the console's titles to its ownership demographic.

For example, I could release a console with 15 M units sold and potentially have every game sell 10 M plus to that install base (and in a sense that's what MS did with Halo on the original Xbox) so SW sales doesn't hold as a principle for populatiry I'd argue - popularity generally means more popular with more people - i.e the Wii is popular.  The 360 is popular with less people technically compared to Wii (hence the console sales).  However, it has more titles that better target its owners (plus I suspect owners who shop for videogames more often) hence the SW sales.

That's a compliment BTW - I think the 360 has been well targeted (well, in US and UK primarily with the effect dimished in other countries) to a certain demographic and has had (mainly) strong titles released that will appeal to that demographic, hence the high sales.  It's only now, when pretty secure with their core demographic, that I think MS can chase the more casual demographic as they are indeed ramping up to do.

One downside for MS if they succeed (and my assumptions are right) are that their attach rate and SW sales ratio will suffer, as unless they pull of some magic they will then have more 360 owners who shop less often for videogames.

ya, that's because they're using windows and mac.

and americans aren't nationalist =O?

@all

and how u guys explain ps3 passing it others with a year and 3 months of 360 advance.