I firmly believe the most popular console is the one that gets pirated the most or how easy it is to do this. It happened with the Amiga and later the PC, later the PSone and Xbox and Ps2. Console games are overpriced ( some say they are overpriced because of piracy, and others will say pircay exists because they are overpriced) and so people will always want to mod the machines to play "back ups". The easier it is to do this the more popular the system.
I think if games were more affordable it would not be worth your while to use pirated software. Look at DVD's: In Australia DVD's were worth about $50 a few years ago, but sales were low and there was alot of pirated stuff out there. But now the average is about $20 and pirates sell theirs for $10-$15 its not worth buying the pirated ones.