PlayStation3, Xbox360, and Wii (yeah right on the last one ;)

This is a hard question. When I first bought a PlayStation3 (February 2007), I made the choice because it was primarily an upgrade from my existing PS2. At the time I had the option of getting a 360 or a Wii as well. (Sorry Nintendo… the Wii just isn’t for me…) My thought behind getting the PlayStation where based on the fact that I had a PS2 and it was starting to have problems playing DVDs, all of my PlayStation 2 game would still work, and I got a sweet Blu-ray player to use on my nice fancy HD 1080P Television.

One of my friends was still trying to convince me that I should get the Wii… but who are we kidding. With 1080P and only 480P possible on a lucky day that option was out. He was also telling me that Blu-ray would never win over HDDVD (we see how correct he was ;).

Now over a year later my brothers arm twisted me enough to get an Xbox. Having both a PS3 and a 360 lets me compare the two systems side-by-side. First I bought the Elite version of the Xbox because I wanted to make sure I had the highest possible graphics possible (and the black system matches all of my other AV gear great). With having both systems I will admit that the selection of games for the 360 far surpasses anything directly written for the PS3. But I can still play most all PS2 games on the PS3 and a lot of the original Xbox games on the 360. But from a graphics standard, that doesn’t help me much.

Wii…

• I don’t have one and have no interest in getting one so I can’t speak on it. (I have used one so I could complain about it if I want :D)
  

Both Systems…

• Remote access to Media Center systems for browsing person Photos, Music, and Videos.
  
  
  
  • PlayStation gets a bonus for better Randomize and easier access user controls
    
  • Xbox wins one for being able to play music from inside of any game as well as full support of Windows Media formats (yeah… I agree it’s an unfair advantage)
    
  
  
• Web camera support
  
• Online purchase of games, downloads and movies
  
• Friends, chat, voice chat
  
• Home brew capable
  
  
  
  • Xbox has XNA which gets the big “W”
    
  • PS3 can boot to Linux. While cool in theory… proves to be a typical Linux pain in the butt for maintenance.
    
  
  
• Wireless controllers
  
• DVD up-scaling
  
  
  
  • PlayStations does a much better job
    
  
  

Playstation 3…

• Blu-ray ... If you can’t see the difference between a DVD and a Blu-ray (or HD-DVD for that matter) then you need to go to your ophthalmologists.
  
• Built in web browser
  
• Boot to other OS (supported)
  
• Cell Processor (this is just cool… but I’m a geek)
  
• Ability to use a standard USB mouse for navigation and use printers if you want
  
• Bluetooth Controllers and support
  

Xbox 360…

• Native support to play music from a Zune
  
• Can directly download full length movies and television shows
  
• XNA… already covered… but this is SWEET!!!
  

Personally, I think both systems have great features. I like both interfaces and controllers. Both have their pluses and minuses. All in all I am glad I have both. I hope the vendors learn from each other and maybe even work together (cold chance in hell I know).