Sheesh, way to give into peer pressure that doesn’t even exist. The motion sensors might have sounded like a bad idea on the Rev (or Wii as it's being called now), but with the wing shaped controllers of the consoles of the previous generation ? I hope nobody actually implements that new feature in a game.

Sony's checklist:

Copy Microsoft's unified online service? Check!
Copy Nintendo's motion-sensor controller? Check!
Charge a minimum of a hundred more than our nearest competitor after underdelivering on our promises? Check!

However, the first two aren't necessarily bad. To quote:

Uh... how sure are we that this is not a joke?

Because it's Sony's official E3 announcement. That's how.

Meh. $500-$600 - crazy. Blu-Ray? Do I care? Do you see me caring?

No.

*FLOOSH* This is sony's console design getting flushed down American toilets. Thank goodness for Japan.

And all things considered, I think that the WII may actually be a more than fair competitor with the Xbox 360. This will be an interesting round...

<Ding>

The picture of it just doesn't make any sense...

Sony isn't the type to joke around, though. This really does look every bit as bad as it sounds. I'm being reminded of the Sega Saturn, which was trying to compete against the Playstation 1 and losing pitifully.

One thing I found very interesting is that the next Dragon Quest is going to be on the Wii. That, right there, sealed in a huge portion of the Japanese market in Nintendo's favor.

Maybe it's hard to judge the scale of it, but it looks like a big ol' box. Awkward.

My opinion thus far:

Strengths:
360: It's here already, it has Live, it has Halo.
PS3: Sony has had the best 3rd party support in the past. Umm, Yeah...
Rev/Wii: Solid lineup, controller seems suited for motion sensing, and of course, N64 ROMZ!!!

Weaknesses:
360: Still kind of hard to find, not much of an improvement in graphics as there should be.
PS3: Price, lack of anything unique other than Blu-Ray.
Rev/Wii: Dumb new name.


Where Square Enix goes, people tend to follow. Even when the games suck.

I ended up getting a PS2 becuase it was $150 and for some of their less famous games. Namely armored core, dynasty warriors, and Ace combat. I will not waste $500 or $600 on this unless it has the absolutly most amazing games ever. Peroid.

Yeah, nobody wants to pay $700 just to play a couple of games. They'd better have a LOT of REALLY REALLY good games or there's just no way they'll sell all that many units.

You'd be surprised how good Sony's marketing department is. They could box cow turd and sell 100 million pieces.

It better be golden turd.

The inclusion of their blu-ray drive drove up the price of the system by $200 (or so I hear). Apparently, the next cheapest blu-ray disc player costs something like $1,000. Crazy.

To me it looks like they're just trying to peddle their own proprietary technology. Blu-ray is cool, but it's just too expensive. HD-DVD, like VHS over Betamax, will rule the day.

You should play Oblivion and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, and then say there isn't a big improvement.

The improvement is harder to notice on a SD TV.

True, but it's still very noticeable.

That's cuz it's designed for HDTV. And on HD, it looks frickin' awesome.

Not really... Very underwhelming, in my opinion.

This is getting off-track – Azdara, may I suggest starting a new thread?

At any rate, is anyone here going to purchase, or at least consider purchasing a PS3? I might when the price drops down to something more reasonable ($300, maybe), but not before.

I'm a casual gamer; so far, all the next-gen platforms are far too expensive for me. No one is going to capture that market with their current rates.

so you bitch about the ps3 and it's overpriceness and the lack of games, and then you tout the xbox? for what, being overpriced and only having one game?

Only one game? Your bias is showing.

When the price drops, just like I the PS2. Metal Gear and Gran Turismo...

When prices drop, I may buy one... maybe...

Haha, starting at $600 it will never get down to anywhere close to what I am willing to spend. That's laughably absurd. What the hell? I mean I may as well just buy a new computer. And get a lot more for my money. Oh well, it'll mean I can get a PS2 for dirt cheap in about a year and play a couple games I missed out on, like the FF series and Soul Caliber 3.

I'm going to be playing Zelda: Twilight Princess on a Wii next Christmas, and ten new Halo's couldn't stop me. (Though to be fair, I would consider getting a 360 before a PS3, mainly because I want to see what happens in Halo 3, even if I hate playing an FPS with that goddamn controller. Not to mention, it's $200 cheaper)

Uh, who the hell are you talking to? The only person to mention the Xbox was Shrout1, and he wasn't touting it at all.

Sure, the X360 is expensive, but even the most expensive one is still cheaper than the least expensive PS3. So it's really not that bad. But yes, who are you talking to?

So we needed the PS3 to make the 360 not look overpriced... Microsoft should be thanking Sony.

MS is now claiming that people will buy a 360 and a Wii instead of a PS3. They're really confident right now.

It's expensive if you have no money. I had money, therefore it wasn't expensive to me. Let me reword that:

It's not inexpensive, but it's the cheapest option to get HD-quality graphics and good games in the console world.

You're either implying that the Wii won't have any good games, or you're using the strict interpretation of "and" that says that the 360 is the cheapest console to provide both HD-quality graphics and good games. Personally, I haven't heard of any 360 games that I really want to play, and there was only one game on the XBox that I really enjoyed (Ninja Gaiden). But that's just me.

No, what I'm implying is that the Wii won't be HD (720p, 1080i and 1080p). The Wii will support 480p (which isn't HD), and will be the cheapest console overall, but of the two HD-compatible consoles the X360 is chepaer.

And for the record, I think the Wii's games look awesome.

Yeah, I'm not real concerned about the lack of HD. I don't even know anyone who has an HD-TV, and I have no plans to get one any time soon. Therefore an expensive conventional console with only one game I want to play (Halo 3) would be completely wasted in my home.

My dad is an A/V geek, so he went out and bought one of the first HD-TVs to come out. After years of watching movies and HD broadcasts, I couldn't imagine going back to standard TVs when it came time to purchase my own. I purchased a 26" widescreen Samsung for $700 and I still couldn't be happier with it 2 years later. The same TV now costs $600, and I've heard reports of it being sold for as low as $350 on clearance as Samsung makes way for it's larger models.

Up until the time I purchased my own TV, I hadn't had the opportunity to play games in HD. I wasn't positive it would make a big difference, but I bought the HD cables so that I could use my XBox to watch movies in 720p. The first game I ended up playing using HD was the first Knights of the Old Republic. While the graphics didn't change much from 480i to 480p, I did notice a huge difference in sharpness of the massive amount of text in the game. After playing it in 480p, I was unable to play it on a standard definition set without getting headaches. Many other games supported 480p and overall there was a noticable improvement in the image.

With the arrival of the 360, I've been able to play games in 720p and 1080i, and the difference in visual detail is extraordinary. I am extremely happy to have an HD set on which to play games.

Of course, I was at a point in my life where I could afford to do so. Going HD is expensive, and it only gets more expensive if you are trying to pick a TV that will last you for a while. It's certainly not likely to be an option for people on tight budgets, such as kids in high school, typical college students, or people just starting to make money. But HD-TVs will come down in price. Couple that with the FCC shutting down analog TV broadcasts in 2009, and I would wager that a lot of people will be making the conversion to HD, even though it won't be strictly neccesary.

We have a 54-inch HDTV in our house, which is why I have an X360. I'm not too concerned about HD capability either, but trust me, like Anon said, stuff looks much sharper and better in HD. And I know an awful lot of people with HD televisions…

However, the Wii will be able to play on either TV and have great quality, so I"ll be picking one up, instead of a PS3.

I don't see a problem besides the cost, and that'll go down before they stop making ps2 games, so I'm set.

And wasn't the PS2 just the PS, but better? And look how well things turned out for them.

Better in one way: graphics. Basically all the Playstation has ever had going for it is third party support. The thing is, I guarantee that Sony will still lose money on these things at the $600 price point because they feel that it absolutely must support Blu-ray, so I don't see much of a price drop coming any time soon. Other consoles drop by $50, and it's significant. PS3 drops by $50, and it's still $200 more than a 360. For the money, it better have some orgasmic games. Cost is not a minor problem. I was considering buying into the PS thing at some point, and play some games I've missed over the past few years, but Sony just made me blissfully exempt from even contemplating buying their console.

In other news, there is an interesting video of the PS3 on YouTube.

Nintendo is sticking to the one thing it has always done best - making good games. If they can actually manage it, they very well may conquer back a good chunk of the market.

To be honest, the Wii's biggest appeal to me is the fact that you can dload any game from any old nintendo system... Super Smash Brothers, Goldeneye, the original Super Mario. Wii directly targets casual gamers, and as the twenty-something demographic continues to get older most of us become more and more casual about our gaming style.

The PS3 and the XBox 360 are banking in the fact that their demographic is growing older along with the cost of their console - what 5th grader, or even 5th grader's parents are going to be able to afford a PS3? They forget the core group (at least Playstation does) that started them out so many years ago and I believe it will hurt them in the end.

Xbox and PS go for power and graphics; Nintendo sticks with games. After years of being a hardcore Xbox fan, I have to say I admire Nintendo more now than ever before.

...thus proving Microsoft right!

I do think that the Wii will be rather dominant in this next round of things.

As do I. It is much friendlier to the casual gamer, between the classic games and the very odd (but possibly cool) controller. I think Sony has seriously ######ed itself up.

I agree. Also it seems that the cube controllers will also work with it or something of the sort since they've said the new smash bros won't use the wand.

There are four Gamecube controller ports on the top of the Wii.

There's also a "classic" controller that looks like a cross between the SNES controller and a Dual Shock. Nintendo recognizes that not all games are suited to the Wiimote system of control.

No. No matter what, people will buy the PS3.... Because people are mentally deficient, and they'll buy into Sony's marketing, which is basically, "R produkt lucks good LOL. buy for bigr pen15!!1"

You say that now, and I'm sure many will show up at the stores expecting to buy a PS3...but then they'll see the pricetag and realize that they don't have enough room on their credit cards to get one (and their checking accounts are, of course, near-zero). People may want the PS3, but if they can't afford one, then they won't be able to get one. It's not like shopkeepers will be willing to take a loss on the console just to get it out of stores.

d00d!!1!! i w4nt a b1gg3r pen15!!!11!!one!!1! PS3 is t3h r0XxXorXxor!!!11!!1!one!!!!1!

My experience has taught me that console debates tend to degenerate exponentially.

Confirmed.

I'm betting that they fly off the shelf as expected at first, but that Sony runs out of customers who can afford one very quickly. A couple million and that's it.