Whaddya know, online console gaming IS profitable!

[OB1]

You'd think that, but then look at the sales for Soul Calibur 2. The GC version sold the best because of Link, but even if every GC owner in the world bought that game it still shouldn't have sold better than the PS2 version because of its insanely high user base. The only explanation is that a lot of people own more than one console, so they can choose between different versions of the same game. Most people who own a PS2 and a GC or an X-Box and a GC go the GC version of SC2 because of Link's inclusion. X-Box versions of multiplatform titles are usually the best ones, but not by a huge margin most of the time. Usually the GC versions sells the worst, with the X-Box one being second and the PS2 one being first (because of the large installed user base). However, in cases like EA's sports games, the PS2 versions sell way more than the X-Box and GC versions combined, and that's because of again the user base but also because of online exclusivity. I'd bet that if the X-Box or PS2 versions of SC2 had a good online mode, the GC version would not have sold quite as well as it did.