I agree, the PS3 comes with EVERYTHING you need to go online, wireless and everything else, while the 360 is a "Create a system" with everything needing to be purchased separately!

But isn't reverse compatable with PSone and PS2 games... and honestly those are the best games they have. The free online gaming isn't a perk in my eye's. I'd gladly pay a small fee for a staff to keep it running smoothly... such as X-box.

the original models (60GB & higher) were backwards compatible, Sony found out that people were getting a PS3 and still playing the older games on it, so they quit making the backwards compatibility. Although regardless of the Hard Drive size, you can still play PS1 games on any of them

My sources say sony quit making PS3's backwards compatable with PS2's the first time to cut production cost's...and now they have just cut production cost again. I automatically assumed they cut the reverse compatability with the PSone but have not cared enough to investigate.

actually they didnt cut with the first they changed it to software emulation instead of hardware emulation and then they started cutting it all together with the 80g

too bad, those are their best games.

I can't help but agree. Xbox goes out of their way to make it known we are nothing but an ATM. While sony actually offers their users a bit more freedom, and by freedom, I mean FREEdom.

LONG LIVE PS3!!!!!!!!!!!!!

X360 a "Create a System"? Interesting... because when I picked up my X360, all I needed to do was run a CAT5 cable to my system and voila, I was online and playing. Had my Friends list up and running, etc etc. The only thing I've had to buy for my X360 is a rechargeable battery kit. That is, of course, unless you are comparing to the Arcade version of the X360, which is the cheapest console out right now. That's not a very accurate comparison.

My PS3 came with everyth... oops, nope - I had to buy an HDMI cable to get HD. I would have had to buy a headset as well, if I didn't already have a Bluetooth headset for my phone. And the Friends list/game invites/etc on the PS3 are all so very inconsistent. And PSn is free, sure, but you get what you pay for.

Neither system is perfect and neither system does everything it can straight out of the box. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but in terms of *services*, X360 wins hands down. You may pay about $5 a month for Live, but the lack of hassle is well worth it (though, more and more, my X360 is becoming a Netflix streaming machine :P)

if you compare what the ps3 comes with and the 360 you get way more with the ps3 IMO...I just have my 360 collecting dust cause i find it retarded to have to pay for internet and then on top of that MS is gonna rip me off for xbox live to play my game online??Yes the Live service is better then PSN at this time but i rather be able to play all my games for free. There are over 17 million live subscribers so I'm gonna round it up to 25 mill. 25mill x 50 =125 million. So your telling me it cost MS that much to do what sony does for free?? lol can you say rip off.

I really don't want to get into a hardware war debate, but I would at least like posters here to try and explain themselves better to foster more discussion.

What do you mean by "you get way more with the PS3"? I think the one big thing that the PS3 has out of the box is the Blu Ray player. I'm not going to argue that (it's less of a point nowadays with players coming down greatly in price). But as far as gaming goes, what does the PS3 have that the X360 doesn't? You can argue about wireless vs wired networking, but first you have to actually argue that having wireless actually matters.

And "to do what Sony does for free"? What exactly does Sony do with their network? They provide demos... and... um... a few games... I think that's it. Game servers and whatnot are all handled by the publishers. There is no unifying system that allows players to communicate across games (at least not to my knowledge - I could be wrong there).

As an anecdote, I decided to take my PS3 online for the first time with someone, and it took 30 minutes just to get a game started. I had to update my PS3 via the network. And despite the system claiming that I had the most up to date OS available, when I put Resistance 2 in the machine, it said I needed another update. It randomly locked up at varying points in the update process 3 times, with no indication as to what went wrong. The 4th time, it worked fine. Then I found out that I couldn't activate my headset from within the game, so I had to log out, activate it, then log back in. Then we had to find each other (you can send game invites to your friends... which do absolutely nothing).

With the X360? I plugged in the network cable. I was done. Now, I can be playing *any* game or even watching a movie, and a friend can invite me to play any game. I accept, put the disc in, and I'm automatically logged in and brought to the lobby, ready for a game. *That* is worth the $4.17/month charge, IMO.

ok this is what i mean by ps3 gets more.ps3 gets blue ray and The Box got that stupid hd-dvd add on which is nothing but a dust collector and you had to spend extra coin for it. ps3 gets wireless if you need it.Xbox well lets just say you gotta go out and fork over more change if you need it.

PS3 i get something 2 charge my controller with.Xbox nah gotta fork over more change for a charger lol.I can play ps3 with up to 7 people one system..the box only 4...

I can play online for free and the box of course you pay that 5 buck a month charge. With games like Call of duty that play the same on ps3 and the box whats the point in paying for xbox live? Just to be able to receive in game invites is worth $$50 a year?? i just don't see it. I'll take not being able to chat and get in game invites with my friends while we are both playing different games its really not needed in my gaming experience. And anyway with Home ( another free service ) we will be able to do this..

Oh and finally lets not forget the high rate of failures with the Red ring and systems scratching up disk and what not. That is totally inexcusable. I read in a article on yahoo MS knew about the Red ring and about their system scratching games up but did nothing about it. So not only are they ripping you off for extra stuff but they are manufacturing a faulty product and selling it to the public.Sure they will fix it for free but why put the consumer through all that hassel.

You know, I like the 360 in general more than the PS3, but bring up RRoD, and I can't help but agree with you, HooDz, at least on that point! I'm constantly worried about the temperature of our media cabinet because of the 360's fragility.

i feel you ebeast I'm not saying the 360 is a bad system i luv to play Gears on it thats one of my favorite games for either system but for people to not think they get more value out of the ps3 is crazy cause in the long run to have your 360 up to speed with a out the box ps3 the 360 will cost way more then 400 bucks and thats a fact

Home? Haha, I looked at that for a few seconds and never went back. I really hope it gets better. But I really think PA summed it up nicely when they asked why someone would want to load up a program where you need to physically search for people at which point you then leave that program to enter another program? Live already does that system wide across all games instantaneously.

As for Blu Ray, yes, that is added value, but contributes little to nothing for actual gaming. Useful to have, but it's more of a sidenote than anything.

As for the RRoD, that is certainly a *huge* issue (as is the disc scratching - happened to me over the holiday, actually), but has nothing to do with out-of-the-box value.

The one thing that the PS3 has over the X360 is the rechargeable controllers out of the box. Problem is that the early PS3s didn't have rumble. Also, if the batteries start to lose their ability to hold a charge, there's no way to replace them (just as a side note - it's stupid that the PS3 doesn't allow you to charge your controllers while the system is off... but you can actually charge the controller on your X360, ironically). But, again, the PS3 doesn't come with HD cables, so there's an extra charge against the PS3.

And I would argue that the live features *are* worth $4~5 a month. It's not just "game invites," it's the cohesiveness with which the entire system works. PS3 may have trophies, but they are insignificant when compared to achievements (the value of which is, of course, arguable).

(And 7 players offline? Are there *any* games that actually use this? Nope.)

Let's add it up:

X360:
$300 - base price
$20 - rechargeable battery
(whether or not to include Live is debatable - Silver accounts are free which give you access to all the content, just not the multiplayer, but Gold offers much more vs what Sony offers, and Sony has no comparable service)

PS3:
$400 - base pric

Hm... The rest got cut off. Basically, I added an additional $10~$80 for the HDMI cable for the PS3, since people generally don't know to buy cables online and buy them at the store where they are ridiculously priced.

In the end, you can still add about $100 to the X360 for a wireless adapter and the price comes out to about the same (without Live, that is). And you can even get cheaper wireless adapters than that, from what I understand. So, in the end, it simply boils down to which system has the games and services that you prefer. The PS3 *is* a fine machine - they just dropped the ball in a couple of areas that ended up hurting it horribly. MS has managed *somehow* to get around the negative press concerning the hardware reliability issues, which is, by far, their biggest mark against them.

listen break it down like this your paying more for a system thats giving you more free online ok maybe xbox is only 50 bucks a year but ps3 you dont even have to worry bout paying anything if if its only 50 bucks dont have to worry bout your system shitting the bed as much as you do with a 360 games being scracthed you heard about how 360 wouldnt put the rubber bumpers in which would only cost about 50 cents an xbox to stop the games from being scratched plus the blue ray 600 by itself? you get your moneys worth with a ps3 the thing that pisses me off though is the fact that tekken 6 final fantasy and all these other exclusives are going to 360 and we dont even get left 4 dead or dead rising? whats that bs

ok on the controller losing charge there was a artical saying sony will replace your controller

"According to GamesIndustry.biz, a Sony representative told the site that the electronics giant "will provide a service to replace wireless PS3 controllers 'when and if' their lithium batteries degrade." The representative added that it would be many years before the batteries degraded. There was no indication as to how much--if anything--Sony would charge for the service."

so thats the controller issue. Next is the hdmi cable lol i purchased a hdmi cable from amazon.com for less then 10 bucks and it works just as well as the 80+ cables so thats not a problem for me, i suggest others do the same..

Silver is useless if you ask me, its like a chat and download service.. Most people have gold and you pay monthly so your basically still paying to have your system fully functional... so keep adding that yearly 50 dollers on the end price