Microsoft: Xbox360
Sony: Playstation 3

are what im going for, also you forgot

Sony: PSP

The PSP is very heaver for it's size, but has great Graphix, and lots of Fetures.

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Full On Design

Sony would appear to be the masters of manipulating the opinion of the press and once again they have done so with amazing ease. For the last two months the internet has been getting hyped over the Xbox360 rumours, leaked pics, leaked specs, etc. EVERYONE in the press has been getting exited about Xbox360, Microsoft looked like there about to become the golden child, however it is amazing just now quickly things can change. Report on the net today and very critical of Microsoft and the Xbox. Why has opinion turned? Sony unveiled the Playstation3.

On paper, the Playstation 3 seems to be twice as powerful as Xbox360, however specs can be deceptive. nVidia and ATi have been head to head in the graphics department for some time, they are both pushing forward equally hard and neither would have appeared to have leapt too far ahead with their next-gen chipsets, their will be differences but it will not be night and day. However, Sony's Cell processor is an amazing chip, engineered to be massively scalable, able to work with a dozen other Cells as easily as it works on it's own and will be used in many things from the Playstation 3 to supercomputers. It has to be good, right? Yes, it is, however while it's stats are very impressive on paper there has been rumours from the development community that much of it's capability can not be harnessed in gaming applications, the end result may not offer much more than the Xbox360 is capable of. Time will tell if this is indeed the case.

The press have been seduced by Sony once again, with impressive video footage of some of the next-gen Sony titles. They are impressive, however I can't help but think back to the unveiling of the Playstation 2 and they amazing looking Final Fanatasy ballroom scene, it looked sooo good and showed us that the Playstation 2 blows away the Dreamcast in the graphics department... yet nothing that has every come out on the Playstation 2 has lived up to the footage shown. It would cross my mind that Sony does need to show up the competition, whether it uses realtime footage or not. Why do this? Because if the press by into it, so will the public. The press has turned against Microsoft today but is there actually any merit to it? I've not seen anything to back it up yet, both consoles look impressive and I look forward to both of them, it just baffles me the way the press are reacting. To quote Eurogamer (an excellent games site that I read regularly), "And I honestly want to play Killzone most of all, despite Killzone on PS2 being a game I find soul destroying to even watch someone else play.". Despite the original Killzone being very poor, a solid graphics demo is making the Playstation 3 version very much anticipated again, now the game just has to live up to the hype! Sony have played a smart game here... but there is more to it.

More later...

Update: Found a report that Sony had said that the Killzone demo was 'essentially in real-time' - quite how that differs from actually being 'real-time' I don't know. I would have said something is either in real-time or it is not, so an educated guess would lead to the conclusion that it is not actually in realtime.

Update2: Speculation as to the nature of the Killzone video is spreading on the gaming websites, IGN being one of many to post an article of doubt (Read it here). Key to the speculation is the comment by Mark Rein of Epic Games (of Unreal fame) who has said "in addition to the Sony demos being shown by Phil Harrison, the Epic and EA presentations were the only third party portions actually running on the PS3 in real-time".

woah big posts...apart from Lil Vaches words of wisdoms...

...my Manga Senses are tingling all over, im studying this for my media exam...all about the gaming revolution...the PS3 looks like a toaster (but thats an artistic view), the nintendo looks like a waffle maker (circular, and i just doubt it will get anywhere, a sign would be...PSP is whopping the DS, but i respect Nintendo, because they make original big hit games (ah mario))...XBOX looks decent

oh and Sony are coming up with blu-ray and planing to wipe out DVD and rule the world!!! *cough, cough*, but i dont know if it will be a big big hit, no one is sure, its just loads of space (40gbs in fact), but come on, i got a DVD collection at home and since blu-ray has more space, it will certainly be more expensive, just hoping that PS3 allows you to play PS2 (DVD) games...

Online Play

Online features are a big part of the overall package from all three companies. Microsoft and Nintendo are going for the 'available to all' route, however Sony have not revealed too much on this yet.

The Xbox360 will operate with a further improved version of Xbox Live, however this time it will be available on two varieties, Silver and Gold versions. The Silver version does not cost anything and will allow basic access to online features and downloadable content. The Gold version will be the full blown Live package, with player match making services, online leagues, buddy lists and improved customisation. Basic online features are apparently a requirement for all Xbox360 games.

Nintendo have announced a single online service that will be free to all users. Expect online games and similar services to the Xbox Live system. There will also be the 'Nintendo Through The Ages' system (I made the name up, that's not official ) but more will covered on the Backwards compatibility post that will come later. The purchase and streaming of games online is also planned. Expect there to be also internet options relating to the DS.


Playstation 3 will have a new online system, the console itself will have a 1Gb network port (same as 1000Mb), which seems somewhat excessive given that even the best broadband connections in the Uk are only 4Mb! Most likely this will be part of the home appliance features, similar to the Xbox360 features. Not much else has been revealed about Sony's online plans.


With Xbox Live being clearly the best option for online games, Sony will need something good to compete in that field, particuarly with the improvements to the Live system that Microsoft have lined up.

Backward Compatibility

The subject of backward compatibility has become a big on since Sony first announced that the Playstation 2 would play all the original Playstaion games. The idea is sound and of major benefit to gamers, why lose all your old games because you want to have a new console?

Xbox360 will be backwards compatible with the original Xbox games, however the extent of the compatibility is under debat. Rumours were around before the offical unveiling that the Xbox would be available in two versions, the games only model with no hard drive and no backwards compatibility, and the full model with hard drive, media centre features and backwards compatibility. To my knowledge, the games only model was not part of the announcements. Additionally, some news articles are reporting that not all titles will be backwards compatible - the exact nature of this is unknown, however it would stand to reason that games developed without using the offical Microsoft protocols for using the Xbox hardware may not be have compatibility. How many games will not be compatible is unknown, however remember that the Playstation 2 was not 100% compatible with Playstation games either.

Playstation 3 will also be backwards compatible with Playstation and Playstation 2 games. This all seems straight forward, however the observant among you may have noticed that the Playstation 3 does not have any memory card ports. Are you likely to go back to GT4, Tekken5 or any of your other games if you do not have access to your game saves and all the extra's that you had unlocked?

Nintendo Revolution is taking a big step with it's backwards compatibility, a step that could really put Microsoft and Sony in the shade. Not only with the Revolution be able to play all Gamecude games, the Nintendo online service will also be making available (over time I assume, and I'm sure there will be a charge involved) most of Nintendo's back catalogue! With the Revolution acting as emulator to play games from the SNES, NES and N64. Not known if Gameboy games will feature though.

New article up today on Eurogamer indicates that Sony will be selling the harddrive for the Playstation 3 as an optional extra rather than as standard (as is with Xbox360). With rumours already going around that Playstation 3 will be launching at a higher price than Xbox360, the additional cost of a hard drive is likely to further increase the divide. If the final graphical output of the Playstation 3 does match up to the demonstrations shown by Sony, it could still be a tough sell if they are priced much higher than Microsoft and Nintendo.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=59480

That is a significant point, however the keyword is "IF"

For a serious gamer, better games is important, however for mass-market appeal that does not really have as much significance. People can't see or hear game quality, only graphic and sound quality, so marketing on the basis of making games better is hard. Mass-market sales will come from recognised names and franchises as a lot of casual game players do not know how to pick a 'good' game.

It's the same problem as the movies, 'good' films do not necessarily do well, however films with fancy effects and big name stars are more likely to be successful.

The days when games were made for fun disappeared long again when people started getting rich from writing games!! If you want games made for fun, look around for the various indie developer sites on the net, there is plenty to be found and some good games (if you can accept that the graphics and sound can often be 'bad')

I said that "films with fancy effects and big name stars are more likely to be successful".
I wasn't saying things are black and white here, small games/movies can do well, big movies/games can flop, however market trends are that the mass-market tends to stick with what it knows (franchises, big stars, etc) rather than try something new and different

Neither did I say that games made for fun have bad graphics. I said that the graphics can often be 'bad' - quoting the 'bad' was more an indication that the graphics would likely not be up to the standard of the big name commercial games. That just comes down to resources, bedroom developers and even small indie developers just cannot match the resources that are available to AAA games, so on relative terms the graphics will not be up to the same standards. Again this is generalisation and there are exceptions.

I don't play games that are just graphical showcases and no real game, however as I've been playing computer games for nearly 20 years (yes, since before most people here were born! ), my tastes and demands are not the same as those of casual games who sometimes don't know any better - as I said, people by games like Fifa, Madden, etc because they are familiar (in some cases those games are good, in others they are not)... same way that Championship Manager 5 has been selling so well despite being a very poor game, thankfully Football Manager 2005 has done well

Xbox360 definately does have the potential to do well, though to be honest, I don't want either of the two consoles to massively out do the other, would be good if each of Sony and Microsoft get's around a 30% market share for the next gen.

Nintendo haven't revealed much about Revolution, think they just gave some info at E3 so that they wouldn't get forgotten about! As Revolution is more than a year away, think they are waiting until nearer the time before revealing too much.

nope. BUT i HAVE learned that there is a new zelda game....and seeing as that is basically all i care about.....jk. but i WOULD like to get the new nintendo, but does that have backward capability? last i heard it didn't and that would be a major turn-off to buying it.