That’s a pretty naive comparison don’t you think? You have completely disregarded the wants of the consumer, something that is obviously highly subjective. Suppose that as a consumer you want a gaming machine. You don’t want a high-def video player (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are not widely available in NZ yet anyway), and you don’t need a 60gig HDD since you already have a computer. You can purchase an Xbox 360 from EB or gameplanet for around NZD650, whereas a PS3 will set you back NZD1199. So if gaming is your primary interest, then which one is the better buy? For that matter you could throw in a NZD499 Wii in addition to the Xbox 360 for the price of a single PS3. 2 consoles for the price of one! Sorry mate, but that is a pretty compelling reason NOT to get a PS3. Let’s not forget that as a PAL consumer you are paying more to receive a product 6 months late, with less functionality (PAL PS3s do not have the hardware backwards compatibility that their NTSC counterparts do). Another compelling reason NOT to get a PS3. Lastly in that analysis above, you forgot to mention that the PS3 only comes with composite cables. To play the PS3 in high-def you need component or HDMI cables, neither of which are cheap.

I agree with you about buying a console that has the games you are interested in playing. At the moment however the PS3 games list is awash with a sea of Xbox 360 ports, and apart from a few (distant) high profile releases there isn’t much to get excited about. Taste in games is subjective however, so to each his own.

The XBox 360 comes with component cables. You do not need to get them seperately. They also retail at NZD 59.90. The cheapest HDMI cable retails at NZD99 (I recently bought one). Composite cables are the crappy standard yellow, red and white ones. BTW the Xbox 360 is capable of outputing a 1080p image via component or VGA cables if you have installed the latest update available free on live. HDMI is unnecessary.

The DVD format did not have any competition. There was no rival media format. You cannot say this about the Blu-Ray format, as HD-DVD is just as viable at the moment. How do you know which of the two formats will be successful and hence readily available in the future? This is an issue especially in NZ, which is perpetually a year or more behind the rest of the world when it comes to technology.

Shouldn’t it be all about games? Just a thought. BTW getting a Joytech product is not a good idea. Just like getting crappy thirdparty Xbox 360 component cables for NZD20 is a bad idea :D.

heh, nice post!

John, i’d like to add to your comments that the addition of a blu-ray drive is also not just about High-def movies, it is also about 50Gb disc based games. Which is defiantly more than enough space for games with HD content to last into the future.

Also you mention that the PAL version of the PS3 does not support hardware based Backwards compatibility and that it is another reason not to buy the PS3 - this is true and i think it is a short sighted move by sony, however also remember that it is the same for the Xbox 360 as well.

Also i think the HD-DVD add-on and the rumours of a Xbox 360 version 2 with HDMI and a bigger HDD (which if true would be the worst kept secret for current 360 owners) is proof that Microsoft did rush their product out in the market too soon as opposed to waiting a few months to incorporate them into the console so they could release a console that had true high-definition abilities.

Sony fanboys keep bringing up the whole XBox 360v2 rumour, which until MS provides an official statement, is nothing more than a rumour. On the other hand there already exists a Playstation 3v2. Unfortunately the change has been for the worse (and it costs more too :S).

Now as to needing a higher capacity storage format, well I don’t think there is really any evidence that game devs need 50 gig discs to make games. Just look at Gears of War. It looks better than any console game out at the moment (and yes I have played both Motor Storm and Resistance), and it fits nicely on a single 9gig DVD. Even if it didn’t fit on a DVD, would you really care if the game came on more than 1 disc? I don’t recall gamers bitching at Square for releasing FFVII on 3 CDs, or FFVIII and FFIX on 4. Let’s not mention the horrible access times that plague Blu-Ray drives. I’d rather have to swap discs 3 times during the entire length of the game, than deal with loadtimes that are close to or even over a minute long, whenever I die, or move to a new level. I don’t hate Sony; it’s just that they have dropped the ball with the PS3 in a big way. Hopefully it’ll be a lesson learned.

Ooh I almost forgot. You have to add the price of a headset to the PS3 total. Looks like the Xbox 360 is cheaper even with all the other stuff added on :P.

Interesting link, thanks for that. Here’s my 2 cents assuming that Endgadget have got it right:
- The larger hdd capacity is a welcome change for gamers planning to store music and videos (e.g. HD cable shows available over live in the US). On the other hand I am sure that the 120gig HDD will be sold seperately, so owners of the existing 360 models can upgrade if they want to do so.
- The HDMI port is a strange addition, given that the Xbox 360 is capable of outputing 1080p without one via either component or VGA cables. I doubt there will be any improvement in visual fidelity either since VGA like HDMI is purely digital, and I *think* the bandwith is the same as well. So unless HD-DVD movies start to implement HDCP (which requires HDMI for playback), I doubt that the HDMI output will have much of an impact especially for gamers who don’t get the HD-DVD add-on.

In other words gamers who haven’t got a 360 yet can get the new model which only costs USD80 more, and owners of existing machines aren’t missing out on much and can easily upgrade to the larger HDD drive. The PAL PS3 however costs USD200 more than NTSC PS3s and it does not have hardware backwards compatibility. Don’t you think that this is a tad unfair?

I am not a MS fanboy. I am going to purchase a PS3 (not a PAL one off course). But blindly supporting a console, which honestly at the moment doesn’t have much going for it, isn’t exactly the smartest thing to do. I’d put good gaming over brandname loyalty any day of the week.

That black Xbox 360 is actually a dev kit:

“We’ve confirmed with trusted sources that the black Xbox 360 is indeed coming (the image above is of the original 360 dev kit, FYI)”

I am not saying it won’t happen, but if it does well at least its an improvement and not a setback like a PAL PS3. Anyway I am going to get a PS3 soonish before that remove backwards compatibility from all models. For the price of a NZ machine I can get an Asian PS3 with 2 controllers, 2 games and pay for the courier shipping. Given that the PS3 is region free and that US,Japan and Asia share the same Blu-Ray region, this seems to be the smartest move.

Cool. Not going to get one; I don’t need 120 gigs and HDMI won’t make a difference to the graphics. I am happy with my original Xbox 360 (especially since I can purchase English titles from HK for NZD 60 :D). In a months time I will have all three current-gen machines so it doesn’t really matter to me who wins this generation. Personally though, I feel that the Xbox 360 is easily the best console of the three; it’s the console I am playing most anyway.