Stan Beer
Wednesday, 27 September 2006 10:06
Opinion and Analysis
Page 4 of 4
Meanwhile, over in Microsoft and Sony land,
the real family consoles will do battle. I say real family consoles
because PS3 and Xbox 360, like their predecessors, really will be used
by the whole family. Aside from purchases made by diehard gamers, many
of the consoles purchases will be made by parents of games playing
kids, who will be thinking of the DVD and now high definition video
playback capabilities.
Where Xbox 360 may make some gains on Sony is in its modular approach.
Xbox 360 plays DVD and is considerably cheaper then PS3. If you want
high definition, then you can buy an add-on HD DVD player, which brings
the package up to about the same price as PS3. With PS3, you get no
choice - it's Blu-ray or nothing. So the addition of an HD DVD option
that can be added later may tempt some would-be PS3 buyers over to Xbox
360.
When it's all said and done, however, the market has already made its
judgement on Xbox 360 over the past year, so the only device that is up
against PS3 is Wii. While Wii may be the darling of the Nintendo set
and some sections of the media, the music player most of the kids in my
son's class use is iPod and the console they're all talking about is
PS3.