Okay, so I've never been quite able to put my finger on the main reason I dislike the 360 (besides the RRoD), but I believe this quote from analyst Nick Parker sums it up nicely:

I got this quote off this destructoid article about how the 360 might be dropped from foreign countries due to lack of sales. 

I'll go ahead and agree that while it does have an impressive library, it does feel like if I had a 360 in my household, then that whole "immature adult gamer" brand (thanks Baroque) would be attached permanently to me.  Why is that?  Madden?  Halo?  This guy? (old, I know) 

It's weird - I believe all of this can be traced back to Halo on the original xbox.  My sister, who, up until now didn't really care for video games (*sigh*) started playing Halo and then saying things like "Oh yeah, I love games," or, "BEST GAME EVAR"  (not really).  This is the same person, who, when I was growing up, couldn't care less for video games.  Sure, she played Mario once or twice, but that was it.  People at my old job (facilities/UPS) who you would have never guessed, played Halo - and only Halo.  WTF?  A pretty substandard FPS becomes this generation's "gateway-drug" into video games?  And it's like that's it.  Mario is now "kid's stuff" and pretty much anything with vibrant colors and simple gameplay doesn't appeal to them (FPS FTW!!1one).  What happened?

Sure, alot of this can be blamed on the xbox live service, which is made up of individual gamers, although I'd really not prefer to call most of them by that name. 

I don't get this group of gamers, and I'm sure they don't get me.  JRPG?  Text?!?  SHMUP??  They've certainly taken over the American market which makes it even harder for people like me to get the games we want.  It's all a matter of money:  the 360 has a huge installation base in the US, but those people mostly buy Assasin's Creed and Halo (I know, an unfair characterization).  Still, the installation base is huge, so what console are you going to release your next game on Namco?    Does Namco really end up selling more?  There are a slew of other issues surrounding this (PS3 - $399?!, Microsoft's omnipotence and year-head-start, etc...), but those are the ones that seem to be the biggest to me. 

I'd personally love a one-console future.  Sure it'd be good for developers, but not necessarily for consumers as they'd be able to charge whatever they wanted.  Of course, if someone like me ends up buying all 3 new consoles anyway, I'm sure a $1000.00 price tag wouldn't be that bad ($499.99 + $350.00 + $250.00).  Heck, I'm already saving $100 bucks.

My Wii and PS3 sit next to each other, cautiously aware of each other's existence.  To me, though, they feel like old friends, and they sure as hell don't want a rude neighbor coming in and disrupting their peaceful lives.

Not entirely sure where you're going with this. You dislike it because of the Halo demographic? Or the immature adult gamer brand that goes with it? That's none of the console's fault.

And yes it has an impressive library, but shouldn't that matter more to a true gamer than whatever image it brings to your house? What about the Wii, with its' droves and droves of Hannah Montana bullshit?

Just sayin' . . .

I know, this might be more of a rant than anything... but it felt good to get out.

I remember when the Xbox 1 came out, I was strongly against it solely because it wasn't offering anything the PS2 wasn't and the aggressive marketing behind it was irritating more than convincing (especially considering Live hadn't gone...well, live yet). Ironically, it feels like the roles have reversed this generation: The marketing behind the PS3 has been laughable and nothing exclusive for it that I'd even rent. Pricing and backwards compatibility were both fiascos and the Lair thing was totally pathetic.

Even though I'm not much of a hardcore gamer anymore, the 360 has at least mustered up a handful of exclusives I'd like to try and I think price-wise, it's less insulting than the scheme Sony tried with the severely-paled down model for $100 less, so the 360 was what I chose for stuff like Rock Band and GH (although if they had just made DLC for either Wii or PS2, I'd have gone that route).

My two cents: Without the ring of death slowing them down, Microsoft would be absolutely killing Sony right about now. Because both systems are dreadfully similar and splitting the market, Nintendo is able to stand out all the more.

I'm somewhat amused when people wish more folks would become gamers while simultaneously decrying the quality of the games that successfully bring them into the fold. It's not really my place to judge my niece, for instance, because she got a PS2 to play Tony Hawk instead of Subsistence. Extending the judgement to an entire user base of a given console seems even more counterproductive. How, really, is equating XBox with 'doods' any different than equating Wii with 'babies'?

I myself don't own an XBox or 360, but it's more out of pragmatism than disdain; heck, until I'd decided that yes, I WAS deep enough into the MGS mythos to buy a pricey box for seeing it through*, I'd been planning on grabbing an original XBox and picking up the titles that I'd had my eye on for some years (I've always wanted to try Voodoo Vince, for example) on the cheap. I may yet do that, but it'll have to wait a while until the stitches in my bank account heal.

As for the bit on Microsoft's overseas woes, well...the gist of it is the things that help the deck succeed in North America don't do much for other regions of the world. Stateside the most popular games include Halo, Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. In Japan they include Dead or Alive, Idolmaster, and Blue Dragon. Culture shock indeed.

Oh, and I had to mention this:

No no no NO. Competition is vital (and considering how NOBODY bit on Sony's think-of-it-as-a-cheap-Blu-Ray-player take with the PS3, the bargain you mention falls flat on the general-consumer level). Sure it's a pain in the ass to have to buy another console just for its exclusives, but if all games came under the purview of one hardware developer, they could see that such games' exposure be diminished in favor of first-party product, or banned outright altogether. If you've ever wondered why companies like Acclaim and Konami had secondary brands and small production orders of marquee titles during the NES years, it's worth researching.

For my money, I'd like to see consoles have their current lifespans extended, or older consoles be resurrected. Considering that the visual difference between the last generation and current-gen consoles is nigh-indiscernable without HD sets, the need for further upgrades is debatable. Sure, companies will always be able to use their software to manipulate the dedicated fans ("Wanna see how God of War concludes? Buy a PS3, sucker!"), but as the price of tech skyrockets, most people will give up the bleeding-edge for something more manageable and/or fun. And no toy store wants to be left with a truckful of ADAM computers again.

[dream]Really, if console makers these days weren't so hot and heavy into digital distribution, they could be making at least twice as much off of retro sales by digging into their vaults and re-releasing old hardware with new games. Wouldn't it be nice if, instead of tens of millions being funneled into development of what's essentially a gussied-up 16-bit RPG, mere thousands could be spent developing it for an actual SNES?[/dream]

*- which isn't to say the PS3 becomes worthless once I've picked MGS4's bones clean; there's DMC4, Ratchet, Ninja Gaiden Sigma -which I want even more now that I know its existence pisses Itagaki off- , and perhaps Uncharted in the here-and-now, with other things in the future, including whatever the Shadow of the Colossus team's working on.

I've honestly been pretty impressed with what the 360 has been able to accomplish from an outside vantage point compared to the original XBox and ignoring the obvious hardware issues (the red ring of death is just weird considering the original XBox is near indestructable and can sevre as a paper weight or door stop in a pinch.)

They have made some progress in varing up the library this time around but the stigma that the XBox is the main home to first person shooter and sports fans is still hard to overlook if that's not your thing.

This pretty much sums up the original post to me.

The real stigma with the 360 is, and should be, the failure rate. But, when it works, it's a damn good console. It has a huge amount of fantastic games. Of course, looking at what's available across all systems, I'd also say that a Wii should be a required second console.

But, when you have those (and perhaps a handheld), you're well covered.

I got a PS3 on friday. My 360 is off at MS with the poxy unforgivable Red Ring of Death. My dog was put down on Thursday (my best friend for 17 years and the whole thing has torn me to bits). I've had a lot of other crap going on recently. And my wife was going away for the weekend. So she forced me (like, really did force me) to buy a PS3 because she wasn't happy leaving me without a new toy to play with (her words).

Well, man, I had a hard time picking games to get. I got Indy Lego (which I could have got on 360) and RR7 and Uncharted. Uncharted seems to be pretty great so far but I had to go through a massive list of games before I found something that both appealed to me and I couldn't already get on the 360. But the other way around, with Dead Rising, Gears of War and a small but solid bunch of others, it would have been much easier.

As it happens, I'm enjoying it immensely and I'm glad I got it but, if it weren't for the circumstances, I could have easily have done without it. Not a condemnation of the PS3, but a testament to the 360.

But gods damn them and their hardware issues. For that, they deserve a stigma. But not the rest of it.

Sorry to hear that, man.

You have my condolences as well.  Seventeen years is definitely a ripe old age for any dog.

Congrats on getting a PS3.  How are you enjoying Lego Indy?  I just picked up the Wii version myself.  It's pretty fun, if noticeably more puzzle-heavy.  But I'm disappointed that they start you off already looking for Sir Richard's tomb in the beginning of The Last Crusade, instead of following young Indy trying to acquire the Cross of Coronado.  Also, Willie's scream technique in ToD is just too funny. ;)

Now that you've got a PS3, will you be picking up Metal Gear Solid 4 next week?

Sorry to hear about your dog.  Mine died in January, and even though I didn't have him anywhere near as long as you had yours, it still sucked.

As for your wife forcing you to get a new toy, is this her way to make sure you stay home while she's away?  You know, to keep you from going out drinking and flirting?  ;-)

Thanks guys. Yeah, it sucks. Though I don't think there was any danger of me going out while she was away.

I'm loving Lego Indy so far. I love the way abilities can switch by picking up items and the added puzzle elements to the gameplay work really well. And it's great hearing Williams music in a game that isn't Star Wars. So far, I reckon Lego Indy has far better level design than Lego SW. That said, I'm not sure I'll get as much mileage out of it after the main playthrough. SW offers so many varied characters with loads that are great fun just to muck about with. Just with Indy being what it is, for a game, many of the secondary characters aren't as interesting. But I think Travellers Tales have done a great job with this one and I'm looking forward to Lego Batman too.

One minor criticism I would have is that I don't think the cut scenes are half as smart. They rely on a lot of grunting to imply dialogue. Lego SW was all mime and quite clever with that. Lego Indy is dialogue we can't understand.

And, yeah, I guess I'll have to get MGS4. It would be rude not to now that I've got the PS3.