Console Wars

So I'm not the greatest console guru in the world, nor the biggest console player. The amount of time I spend on my PC can attest to that. But I do still follow the industry, I still have played all 3 of the current-gen (NOT NEXT-GEN. How can something that's been out for over a year be considered "next-gen") and I just wanted to share my opinion on all 3 of the consoles currently out. First of all, this WILL be biased. I'm a man of my own opinions (based on other people's opinions). I will not, however, be blindly bashing a console. I try to base all this stuff on what I know, if I do get something wrong and you feel I fail because I bashed your favorite console, leave a comment and let me know. If you want me to even edit some content, slip me some greens and I'll get to work. Anyway, first off is my personal favorite, the Nintendo Wii.

So in terms of total install base, the Wii is the winner. In fact, it's still having supply shortages to this day, over a year after it came out. That's definitely got to count for something. Now I know you can argue that a huge number of those people could be casual gamers, parents, grandparents, little kids, etc, not true hardcore gamers. Thus in such may not spend as much money for accessories or games or anything. You have to understand on the flip side, that Nintendo made profits off Wiis sold from the get-go, the cost for them to manufacture a single Wii is cheaper than the sale price. Not only that, Wii games are only $50, as opposed to PS3 and 360 games starting off at $60 generally. But enough of the prices, everyone knows enough of that. Lets get on to the games.

I think the Wii has one of the better game selections, and definitely comparable to the 360 IF you also take into account the virtual console. The virtual console trumps xbox live arcade imo, just because it brings in a huge library of games that people cannot easily get their hands on anymore. Many of which are great classics that people can still enjoy. XLA certainly does have good games in return though, like Geometry Wars (which is a huge one). I believe the Playstation 3 falls behind in this category. I have not heard great things about the PSN, and although I believe much has been fixed, there were big problems with backwards compatibility on the PS3.

Now you wonder, what about current-gen games? The Xbox 360 wins in this category, then the Wii, then the PS3. The 360 had a year headstart on the others, and I've heard it's easier to code for than the PS3. Also it has a bigger install base than the PS3 (Although with the recent price drops, the PS3 is slowly gaining too). Games that are cross-platform between the 360 and PS3 have been often tested and shown to run much better on the Xbox 360. Take many of the sports games from EA, they run at 60fps on the 360, but only 30fps on the PS3. This isn't very excusable in my opinion. Meanwhile the Wii is stuck with a PS2 version port. That said, Madden NFL played quite well for a launch title on the Wii. So in this perspective, the 360 has games out like Gears of War, Halo 3, Mass Effect, Skate, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Forza Motorsport, GRAW, and DiRT, to name some of the better ones. While some of those are cross-platform, they generally outperform the PS3. I'm ignoring the PC in this discussion. The PS3 has Ratchet and Clank, Unchartered, Resistance, Ninja Gaiden, and Folklore. Certainly the PS3 has some bigs game coming out soon, that being MSG4, Little Big Planet, and GTA4 to name the big ones. However they still won't be out for a while. The game selection is certainly looking good for the PS3, but will it be enough? The Wii isn't totally out of the equation either, they get huge credit for killer games like Metroid 3, Zelda TP, and Mario Galaxy. But that's not all, there's still Mario Strikers, Trauma Center, and a few other worthy games. Most of the rest is crap that's been rushed out just to cash in on the huge success of the Wii. They still have SSBB on the horizon though, and that's going to be huge.

Graphics wise I think the PS3 wins in terms of raw power. The 360 looks very very nice too, comparable to the PS3 in my opinion. The Wii obviously is behind those 2, beating out like the PS2 only. However I think we're at the point in time where graphics are not the biggest issue. We're approaching the point where some stuff looks so real, it looks blatantly fake. That and Mario Galaxy proves to us that games on the Wii can look amazing, I don't think many games can match up to its vibrant and pretty graphics.

So enough of my opinion. I kind of just went through and listed stuff out as opposed to an organized and well-thought out argument, but maybe it'll help those who don't know much about consoles. It's not very detailed, but I could definitely follow up on any criticisms you might leave. As a final word, here's my rank of the consoles: Wii, Xbox 360, PS3. I think a lot of people would interchange the first 2 on their list, but not many can deny that the PS3 seems to be lacking right now.