Fair enough. We just have a difference of opinion. I've been on this, and the old site for almost ten years and I cannot remember anybody ever mentioning the PS3 selling because it was hacked - event he hacking of it is practically never mentioned. Respectfully, I think that's far fetched.
As to the online being free, while that's possible I suppose, we also have to consider that the original Xbox essentially pioneered online gaming on consoles, modernized it with Halo 2, and through the Halo franchise played an incredibly important role in multiplayer becoming what it is today. Furthermore, the Xbox 360 launched before the PS3. And, while I have idea what numbers exist, it was generally understood that because of the above reasons and a better online infrastructure and implementation of features multiplayer games were generally more common for the Xbox 360. So while some people might have gotten a PS3 instead of an Xbox 360 because of the free online, I certainly don't think it contributed significantly so.
Really, while I don't think it's any one reason, the simplest explanation is Sony had more exclusives, a wider variety of exclusives and better exclusives. Obviously better is subjective, but broadly it's fair to say that in the larger discussion of how Sony's exclusives must have played a role.
