Xbox 360 or PS3
For Christmas I got the family an Xbox 360. I agonized over the decision… Would it get the Red Ring of Death… Would it be better than the PS3… Will the Xbox be a good long term investment.
Even though I like Microsoft products in general (Office, Vista, Visual Studio), I am not convinced of there understanding of providing entertainment. I own a Zune, not because of the brand (good MP3 player), but I got it at a huge discount at Woot.com.
Entertainment is not what I associate Microsoft with… Great marketing yes, dominance you betcha! but entertainment?
Well I am happy to report that the Xbox 360 exceeds all my expectations. I may not get on-line playing (requires Gold membership), but it is a much improved experience over the PS2. The PS2 has been a great fun for me and my son. The PS3 seemed like the right direction…
Until I found out that only certain models of the PS3 could play PS2 games. Knowing it would cost an "extra hundred" to keep playing PS2 games on the HD TV (moved the PS2 into the playroom) didn’t make me happy. It was like buying "another PS2" just to keep playing my games.
Being the research monkey that I am, I started reading… A lot. That is when I found out any PS3 made since last summer would not support PS2 games. Sony shut that door and doesn’t want you to play PS2 games on the PS3. My son still likes a few of the PS1 games, has a dozen PS2 games and now he can’t play them on the PS3?
Since I was going to have two gamin systems in the house, that opened the door to the Xbox360 and 300 Xbox original games to look at. Since Blue-ray is worthless to me the value of a PS3 dropped even more.
The Xbox360 has tons of games and a large used game market at GameStop.com. The PS3 is also mostly "adult" or "mature" games and I have a six year old to buy games for… Chalk even more up to the Xbox.
In the end it was the dollar sign that won me over (and a 3 year warranty against the RROD). I spent less than $400 and had a Xbox 360, two games, an extra controller and a wireless charging station.
I really wanted to go with the PS3, but Sony looks to have lost this round of the gaming experience and maybe the next. If Microsoft is smart, and we know they are, they should support all three generations of games on the third generation Xbox system.
A bunch of my points are agreed with and expounded upon better in this CNET article.
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