There is no doubt that launching first gave Xbox 360 a lead of about 5 Million units over the PS3. However, the Xbox 360 has maintained this lead for nearly five full shopping seasons that the PS3 has been on the market. In fact, the sales gap in English-speaking parts of the world such as North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia has actually seen the lead of the Xbox 360 expand over that period of time.

I believe the primary reasons why Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 have to do with superior software. This superiority is the result of better graphics (especially in multiplatform games), faster load times, and superior online features.

For example, Virtua Fighter 5 is on both Xbox 360 and PS3. But only the Xbox 360 version lets you play online against other gamers. Plus, the Xbox 360 version has better graphics and more features.

Another example is Marvel Ultimate Alliance. This game is virtually identical on both consoles. There are only a few minor differences, but they add up to something big. First is load times: On the PS3 it takes eight full seconds to swap characters in a game where you swap hundreds of times. On the Xbox 360 it takes only three seconds for loading when swapping characters. Also, on Xbox Live there are so many more people to play with. And all of those people on Xbox Live have headsets to chat with while playing; it isn't like that on PS3 since PS3 doesn't come with a headset.

Tekken 6 is a game designed as a PS3 "exclusive" using PS3 hardware. It is identical on both consoles. The only difference is load times; they are faster on Xbox 360.

Soul Calibur 4 is another great game from Namco. It runs at 40% higher resolution on Xbox 360. Xbox 360 runs at 1365x960p while PS3 runs at standard 1280x720p. This makes a difference to gamers who want the best software.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is a best-seller. It has a resolution of 720p on Xbox 360, but only 640p on PS3. And the Xbox 360 saw the exclusive launch of the two extra episodes. This made a big deal to a lot of people, as proven by the fact that two out of three gamers bought this game for Xbox 360.

Modern Warfare and Call of Duty games are the same thing. Gamers know that Microsoft has a contract with Activision where Xbox 360 gets all map packs launched exclusive. Eventually they will be available for PS3, but why wait when you can have it first on Xbox 360 and have millions of more gamers to play it with -- gamers who use headsets while playing online. Being able to use a headset online for strategy really does make a big difference in games like Modern Warfare, Call of Duty, Gears of War, and Halo.

Finally, when you look at all the hundreds of exclusive games Xbox 360 has on disc, Xbox Live Arcade, and Xbox Live Indie Games, it really seems clear to me that the reason why Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 has a lot more to do with games than anything else.