How does Sony do it? Historically, it's easy to see that Sony has been paving the way for the quality, in-depth, genuine console gaming experience since the arrival of the PS1. Being the owner of all three last-gen consoles--XBOX, Gamecube, and PS2--I can say that the PS2 had/has the best game library of them all. Final Fantasy, God of War, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Shadow of the Colossus... in fact, if you don't mind the graphics, you can still rely on the PS2 for hundreds of hours of great gaming. But my point is that the greatest game titles have been aligned with Sony for ages. This was something I took into consideration when I bought my PS3. I could only afford one system, so I did my research.
The problem with Microsoft is that they lack the sincerity and genuine passion for great gaming that Sony has demonstrated from the start. Microsoft tried to manipulate some of our basest weaknesses, most noticeably being the tendency to think that adding an "X" to a word causes it to ascend to a level of pure awesomeness. Then they tried to be hip by implementing the neon-green color. I can't help envisioning a group of Microsoft designers, out-of-touch with reality and their audience, swooning over the notion that all the kids would immediately connect with the neon-green. "They'll think it's rad!" While this sounds like a superficial assessment of the XBOX, I think these visual aspects of the system are a clear reflection of Microsoft's approach to console gaming, and why the PS3 so easily dominated the 2009 awards.
I am not a fanboy. If I had been given a 360 for free before purchasing my PS3 (since I would never buy one), I know that I would still have enough games to enjoy and to keep me entertained. However, I would not have Blu-Ray, nor would I have Bluetooth compatibility (not out of the box, anyway), nor would I have free network access (every little bit counts for me). I wouldn't have the many exclusives that I consider essential to my gaming experience. MGS4 was just the beginning of it--coincidentally the GOTY for 2008--and now, heading into 2010, the PS3 exclusives are rocking the gaming world like nothing else. What would I do if I had a 360 instead, and I had to watch Demon's Souls, Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2 waltz through the awards? What would I do if I knew that I was going to miss Heavy Rain? Thankfully, that was never a possibility, thanks to Microsoft's pretentious, self-absorbed, "money fixes everything" attitude that permeates the 360 and warded me away from it.
Demon's Souls, Game of the Year? That was a notion spoken by many in the Demon's Souls forums upon the release of the game, always followed by the sentiment that DS taking GOTY was just a dream. It would go unrecognized, moping in the shadows of massively hyped titles like Modern Warfare 2 and even other PS3 exclusives. If you remember those times in the forums, today will have been even more spectacular. Congratulations to From Software, to PS3 owners--to those who had the foresight to stick with the PS3 despite the trash talking and popular expectation for the PS3 to fail horribly. Today, we stand in the midst of more awesome exclusive games than we have time to play (how many comments have you seen in the PS3 forums about "this game is still unwrapped"?) and a new decade in which the PS3 will undoubtedly follow the path of the PS2 towards introducing the next best gaming library ever.