E3 2006 – Microsoft Wins the Console War (or Maybe Nintendo)

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But the moral of the story is, it won’t be Sony.

I’m not a fanboy. I own lots of consoles, and buy them for the games, not the name. But in this day and age when money can be tight, I made made my investment in the Xbox 360, mainly because I had made the decision to buy an Xbox a generation before it. The PS2 has the best catalog, it is backwards compatible with original Playstation games, and I had every intention of buying one until the realization set in that money might be better spent elsewhere. I think my wife actually said that. Anyway…

I was thinking of pre-ordering a PS3, if not for its backwards compatability with all previous generations. But for $600? Hell no. Even if I wanted a Blu-Ray player so badly, I still wouldn’t shell out that kind of money until it was a proven format. But that’s not the stinger.

Gamespot reports the cheaper PS3 is crippled. No HDMI, no WiFi, no memory stick inputs. Even though it might play games the same, not having the ability to save them is kinda a buzzkill. Most importantly is the lack of HDMI, because that means I won’t be able to watch Blue-Ray movies, as the format requires that input for digital copy protection.

One more somewhat important thing – Sony seems to have eliminated the vibration function from their controllers. And they’ve obviously replaced it with a motion sensor function that will be completely useless to me because that requires me to play my games upright and not in a comfortable reclining fashion that I prefer.

So $500 for the priviledge? No thanks Sony. My second console will be the Wii.

One thought on “E3 2006 – Microsoft Wins the Console War (or Maybe Nintendo)”

  1. You know, I had a big issue with the Square-Enix conference. They announced support for every console under the sun, and their allegiance with Sony is starting to grow a little old. Yesterday they announced Final Fantasy games for the next ten years but no support for the Xbox 360. Sorry guys, FFXI doesn’t cut it, and not just with critics (just look at the sales figures).

    I’m starting to have an issue with Square in general. They seem to feel more important than they really are. They feel they can put out anything and it can be good “enough”. For instance, they think they can make an FPS with Dirge of Cerberus, and even when journalists tell them how broken it is, they shrug off the criticism.

    So it kinda servers them right, that if Sony indeed sinks, they would be going down with the ship.