The Xbox 360 did come out before the PS3. Though the PS3 has also had a very high price point, too high, for most of it's history. Since they've brought the new slim model down to $300 it is selling very competitively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyeemtS1jII

"But the bottom line is that Sony has sold 9 million PlayStation 3 units worldwide to Microsoft's 16 million XBOX 360 units, even though they were released around the same time."

Am I being thick or is this sentence just completely wrong on every level?!

The PS3 has sold approx 27 million units world wide and the Xbox360 has sold 34 million units.

The PS3 was launched a full 12 months later than the Xbox360 in the US and Japan and some 16 months later in Europe and other areas!

Despite a huge 16 month head start for the 360 sales are virtually neck and neck in Europe at around 10 million each. In Japan the PS3 has outsold the 360 4-fold despite launching a year later. It is the US that is the 360's main fighting ground with a 9 million unit advantage over the PS3 (which may be narrowed, but I'd be surprised if it's overturned).

Despite this though if you time-adjust the launches the PS3 has actually sold more units than the 360. This is even more significant when you factor in that the 360 launched as the first next-gen machine with no competition, a decent selection of games, and a relatively low price. This in constrast to the PS3 that was launched competing against an established 360, the new Wii, with an at the time unproven disc technology, high price, and relatively few launch games.

So actually it's not such the clear cut victory Microsoft would like to make out - in fact they must secretly be kicking themselves for not capitalising on their head start more. Do I expect the 360 to finish 3rd by the end of this generation? Yes I do, not that it matters this time as all consoles this gen have passed the point of being declared a failure (all consoles have sold more than both the Xbox and Gamecube did in their entire lifecycle).

In summary, if you're going to do articles on the 'console war' please get your facts right first...

PS3Owner,

You are absolutely right. Those figures -- the 16 million and the 9 million -- refer for the U.S. market, and I have changed the original post to reflect my inaccuracy.

But that doesn’t change the fact that activity on the PS3 network is not nearly as robust as it is on XBOX Live. In fact, it makes it even more of a wonder.

The question is: why are major games, such as Modern Warfare, selling so much less PS3 units? Since the game was released in Nov. 2007, it has sold 5 million copies in the U.S. as of Oct. 31, compared to 2.1 million PS3 units. That means that the attachment rate for the game was one-third for XBOX users in the U.S., compared to one-quarter for PS3 users.

We can also look at a more recent example. Borderlands, launched in Oct., sold 417,602 XBOX 360 copies in U.S. that month and 112,666 PS3 copies.

I believe the reason for this is the following: Modern Warfare is known as a multiplayer game, and people are more likely to engage on XBOX Live for multiplayer. Only about 6-8 mo. ago were PSN users able to see what "friends" in their network were up to so they could join in. XBL has done this all along.

Sony is on the right track, but it needs to enrich PSN by offering exclusive games, particularly shooters, that emphasize multiplayer so that registrants actually log on regularly and spend time on the network.

You have an interesting view on this that differs from mine, each to his own I guess.