I own an XBox 360, but I think I can speak about some of the reasons why people defend their game system of choice so strongly.

1. Buying a game system is an expensive proposition in a number of ways, especially early in the console’s life cycle. The system itself runs $400.00 to $600.00. If you want to play with other people on the same console, you’ll need to buy additional controllers and headsets. Want to play some games? Launch systems don’t come with any. You’ll need to factor those into the price, and at $60.00 a pop, it ain’t cheap. We won’t even speak of the retailer bundling that goes on early in a system’s life cycle.

2. When I was a kid, I had 2 or 3 game systems strewn around on the floor in my bedroom in front of my 17 inch TV set. Now I do my gaming in the living room. Making space for another game system can be tough, let alone getting the wife to agree to “Yet Another Box”.

3. The incremental cost of buying a second game console is (essentially) double. When you compare the value that you get from buying a second console to the value you could get from buying games for the console that you already have, you get a strong incentive to hope that the horse that you’re backing at least survives until the end of the race.

4. History has been tough on early adopters of game consoles. As a former Atari 7800, Sega Master System, and Nintendo 64 owner, I know what it’s like to back the loser. In this day and age, not only can companies hear what consumers have to say, but the media can report on what consumers have to say. I think that people fear that if the general sentiment about their console of choice turns too negative, their investment can turn to dust as quickly as the console manufacturers can say “we’ll get ‘em next generation”.

Take all of the above, stir in the passion that gaming inspires, add a dash of “John Gabriel’s Internet F**cwad theory” ( http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/ ) and a pinch of jealousy, and you get a group of folks ready to fight to the death to defend their platform.

Microsoft have lost over $1 Billion from the RROD fiasco, while that’s not going to bankrupt a company like Microsoft if you add everything up, Microsoft have lost more money on their 3 – fix – me then Sony have with the PS3.

As for the PS2 selling almost the same as the PS3 – it sells almost as much as the 360 as well, moron. The Xbox 360, for sure, will finish last this generation and the fact that it has no games isn’t going to help that cause…………