Dissecting Sony's PS3/Xbox 360 price comparison

Lets see, $50 for a year of Xbox live gold.

I just bought my xbox live gold membership a recently. And you know what? Its the bext $50 I ever spent. After all xbox live has the best online service. And $0 for second and third rate online service, no thanks I'll pass.

"I agree with some posters here about paying for online gameplay. I understand that you may want to pay for services; Community features (chat, mail, messaging), downloadable content, etc. But just to play my game online with a friend, I have to pay?"

Somebody's got to pay for the dedicated servers and bandwidth and you can be damn sure it ain't gonna be Sony. You'll get ads all over the place maybe, unblockable pops from Sony perhaps? Pay for game Demos? If the Gran Turismo fiasco is any indication, I think I know EXACTLY where that "lost" revenue will come from. Who knows but it's got to be paid for somehow because it's not "free" out of the goodness of their hearts.

“However, if you want to attempt to come close to the performance of the $499 PlayStation 3 by using your Xbox 360, Core or Premium, you could only do that through expensive add-ons -- that is what our chart is demonstrating. Once you add it all up, it would cost you more than our $499 unit, and you would still not come close to everything we offer, ie: free multiplayer gaming, 50GB storage capacity of Blu-ray disc, Blu-ray disc player for games and movies, processing power of the Cell Broadband Engine."

“Through our comparison chart we are not implying that you must purchase the myriad of peripherals and add-ons that Microsoft offers to play your Xbox 360. You don't."

- SCEA senior director of corporate communications David Karraker.


And I agree with that completely. If I may add the inclusion of Linux, an AJAX capable browser so I can use Google office programs i.e.: writely and spreadsheets. I was this close to buying a Mac Mini to use as a media centre pc, this close. Hey wait a minute how much is a Mac Mini again... gasp $599

Forgot to add the link.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4061&Itemid=2

Hey they forgot the not included HDMI cable, or component.

Actually, the online service, if obtained before june 2007, you get to have it for free forever, since it also runs off of the same wi-fi server. Only after June 07 do you have to pay for it, and then it is a one time payment. Remember how they promised connectivity for the psp and ps2/3? They have been pretty silent bout that, while nintendo has already confirmed that there will be ds/wii connectivity, to the point of online ds wii connectivity. I see it being a valid point to by a ds lite with one game and a wii package for the price of less than that of a ps3, and if bought before june of 07, you get a ds lite, one game, a wii that comes with online, a controller, wii sports and more. Yes, i am a Nintendo Fanboy at heart, but i do plan to buy a 360 and surprisingly, a PS3. But seriosly, if they are so confident in their system, why do they have to make slanderous and biased facts?

WERE confident, when they initially designed this overly ambitious system... but obviously lost it thanks to humongus backlash.

@104 Matt

See youdont read much since they release allthe information on how the PSP and the PS3 connect.

The only fair way to do this is via use cases. For example: "If you want to watch a DVD in hi-def" or "if you want to play multiplayer online" or "if you want to just play a game by yourself" and then list the MINIMUM it would cost to do each on each system. And I think Sony would lose in every category, including coming out $1 more on watching a DVD in hi-def.

Obviously they have purposefully misled people by 1) not stating what the goal is, i.e., why the the users are "required" to buy something, 2) pricing the 360 at core and then adding things in a manner that no consumer would ever do because you could get it all cheaper if you bought the non-core, and 3) Not clarifying the difference between "online access" and "Xbox Live Gold." Silver is free and is "online access."