B. Mann Consulting

OK, so my last post had pretty much already ended with me convincing myself that the Xbox 360 was probably the right game console for me. logicnazi's post in the comments pretty much sums up why I ended up going with the Xbox 360:

However, if you are more concerned about immediate benefits or are willing to buy a PS3 in a couple years when they have better games and are cheaper AND don't have much desire for a blu-ray player then by all means buy an Xbox 360. I feel the pull of the PS3 as much as anyone but you just can't deny that at the moment the xbox has greater market penetration and better games. Hell, given that the xbox 360 is pretty close to commodity hardware it would be surprising if it hadn't come out of the gate stronger than the PS

I'll be writing up a few more thoughts as I kick the tires on different features, here are some quick hits:

• Unbox experience was nice and easy, aside from some sound issues -- I have a monitor with composite inputs, and then had to dig up RCA to mini stereo connector; I'm an edge case here, so no problem
• I had been warned that sign up process was long / awkward with controller (e.g. address / credit card sign up stuff) -- it wasn't that bad, and it's a "one time operation" ... went smoothly, connected to my existing boris_mann AT hotmail.com ID no problem
• some inconsistencies in UI (this is going to be vague, doing from memory) I end up in one section which has a listing which I click on, which then says, go to this other section to actually get to that feature...uh...just link me there directly :P
• set up Connect 360 and am playing music etc. from my Mac no problem...very nice
• Xbox Live Arcade games seem somewhat expensive: maybe this is just an expectation thing...I expect "small" games to be much cheaper
• also, why can't I buy full-length games online? I've been spoiled by Steam, I guess...and thinking about this more, I guess the games are locked to that particular console? Or to my gamertag?

Thanks to everyone for the lengthy feedback on the last post. Much appreciated.

P.S. my gamertag is "Cudgelsan" -- please add me if you are looking for someone to easily beat :P

I've been recently going down the path of re-shuffling my home media environment. Since I'm also still kicking the tires on various PC games (the new Steam community site is very interesting (link is my userid, you may need to be logged in) -- for the record, all the other games I mentioned I'm no longer playing.

Anyway, I've been thinking about a game console at home. The choice is really between the Xbox 360 and the PS3: the Nintendo Wii is a great supplementary machine with its very different interface options and social nature, but not such a great media center. I'm more likely to buy my own Wii controller and go over to friends that already have one.

Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 seem to have solutions in place to easily share media from your Mac. There is Nullriver's Connect360 and there is the open source MediaTomb which can let you run an open source UPnP server to share to both platforms (older how-to).

The Xbox LIVE and Xbox Live Arcade is compelling. Easily download small mini games. Get an account, earn achievements. Even playing "simple" games, you can compete with other people at home anywhere else online with you, and "invest" in an identity.

But...

...it's Microsoft. I acknowledge they've built a very interesting machine. It's much more of a market win than the PS3 by a long shot (at this stage of the game...). But it's optimized to work with Windows Media Center, and it's not really that hackable.

The PS3 on the other, I love for its open-ness. It actually has "install other operating system" as a *menu item*. That's fantastic, and totally appeals to me wanting to tinker.

But...

...for the price of a PS3, I could buy both an Xbox 360 *and* a Wii. It's pricey. Am I buying into tomorrow's technology, today? Also...it does come down to the games. And to the social network. My social network mainly has Xbox 360s (aside from Mark Yuasa who has a PS3 in addition), and some of the upcoming games that I'm interested in (e.g. Mass Effect) are Xbox only.

Hmmm...it seems like in writing this, I've convinced myself. My heart says I should get a PS3, but my head says Xbox 360.

What would you get? Why? Do you have one already? What do you use it for?