dyls said:
I'm not sure how anyone could argue that the 360 is a bigger failure than the PS3. The 360 came in with very modest expectations and has lived up to or slightly exceeded them. The PS3? Sony could have made a shoe box with the word Playstation written in sharpie on the top and it would have done only marginally worse than the PS3 has. Probably the biggest failure in the history of the Japanese videogame industry in terms of expectations vs. performance.
There are different ways to look at "failure" though, at least in my opinion. One way to look at it is when it comes to sales VS expectations as you say, and in this case, then the PS3 is probably a bigger failure than the Xbox 360 indeed, i agree.
Another way to look at it is on how much interest people have in a gaming system. Xbox 360 was released about 11 months before the PS3, the Xbox 360 were always cheaper (or maybe not the Xbox 360 Elite model) compared the PS3's price, the Xbox 360 got several of exclusive and/or time exclusive RPG games, several of bigger titled games like Devil May Cry 4 and Resident Evil 5 where also released on the Xbox 360 (so people dont have to buy a PS3 to play these games if they want, they could play these games on a Xbox 360 instead) and the graphics between the Xbox 360 and the PS3 in general is basicly just as good. There were many factors that could make the Xbox 360 outselling the PS3 in Japan, at least in theory.
The Xbox 360 is outselling the PS3 in USA for example, and one of the reasons for this is probably due to the price tag, so why isnt this happening in Japan as well? I dont think that the PS3 has gotten that many more games in Japan that could impact the hardware sales a lot, but maybe i am wrong.
But regarding if the PS3 or the Xbox 360 is the biggest failure in Japan, i guess it depends on how "failure" is defined.
By the way, how much did Sony expect the PS3 to sell in Japan?
EDIT: I added some text.