Features - QOTW: PS3, Wii or Xbox 360 - which was best?

[HEXUS]

Your chance to name your gaming highlights from the current generation.

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[watercooled]

[silentphoenix]

Going by worldwide sales, wii won by a comfortable margin (~100m units compared to ~75m for each of the PS3 and XBOX360).

I have to say I found the wii very novel, fun, refreshing and something the entire family could enjoy despite lacklustre graphics. However, I tended to use my PS3 more often as a single user gaming and media machine. I never owned a XBOX360 (due to lack of built in bluray), so the PS3 won the battle of the end-of-current generation console battle... but in the end, the PC wins the war!

How do things work on the failure rate side of things? I guess this is a win for wii, and a major embarrassment for XBOX360 with the RROD, and PS3 lingering in the middle?

[abychristy]

Going by worldwide sales, wii won by a comfortable margin (~100m units compared to ~75m for each of the PS3 and XBOX360).

I have to say I found the wii very novel, fun, refreshing and something the entire family could enjoy despite lacklustre graphics. However, I tended to use my PS3 more often as a single user gaming and media machine. I never owned a XBOX360 (due to lack of built in bluray), so the PS3 won the battle of the end-of-current generation console battle... but in the end, the PC wins the war!

How do things work on the failure rate side of things? I guess this is a win for wii, and a major embarrassment for XBOX360 with the RROD, and PS3 lingering in the middle?

What he said !

[sykobee]

The Wii was novel and fun. Technically it was nothing special, but for the time it deserves a lot of credit for the control scheme which was its main innovation.

The 360 and PS3 were just standard consoles initially. The RROD did the 360 no favours. Hardware wise they were roughly equal, give or take (number of cpu cores, gpu capability, powerful SPU array, etc). The HD DVD failure also didn't help. The PS3's price was not fun, but it did bring BluRay into a lot of houses.

I remember a lot of fun at parties with the Wii. I think it got the concept of a party console right. And it won on sales too, and on appealing to a wider audience. The hard core console gamers would certainly disagree that it was the best console though.

So .. for multi-user, casual and parties: The Wii won.
For hardcore gaming, the 360 and PS3 probably draw overall.
For auxiliary uses (media, etc) the Wii was initially good (YouTube, iPlayer, Web Browser) and must be praised. The PS3 always had Blu-Ray. And you don't need a subscription to watch NetFlix these days. I'll give this one to the PS3.

[Doherz]

PS3 for me.

Exclusives, free online play and the blu-ray drive made it better than the xbox for me.

The wii didn't even figure for me.

[iiee]

PS3 won in the end for me though i own both. The xbox was the superior machine at the beginning of the generation and it is still the better console if you play console games online. However my xbox died after 4 years (pretty good by all accounts for a launch console) where as my 60gb playstation is still going strong and playstion plus is the best deal in gaming. Thats without mentioning that playstation has had a stronger and more interesting set of exclusives since about 2009. Still in the end both consoles have lost out to pc for me in recent years.

[MrCanzine]

I got a 360 soon after release, I thought it was good and for the most part about the same as a PS3, but as I found I didn't play much online I couldn't justify paying for the XBOX Live Gold membership if I only played online like once a month. Then X360 came out with the extra 'apps' like Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Youtube, etc. But the fact that I couldn't access those without a Gold account is ludicrous. I was happy with the Kinect though overall.
I think as far as games go, the experience was pretty much the same on either PS3 or XBox360(I now own both), so what differentiates the two are the services. PS3 had free online play, and netflix usage, etc. When I saw a game on a shelf, one for 360 and same copy for PS3 and same price, PS3 won out because I knew if I wanted to play online for any reason in the future, I'm not stuck paying.

PS3 started at a lower point than 360 due to the higher price and fewer games, but has overtaken 360 in usefulness overall(If you don't pay for XBOx Live Gold anyway, otherwise it may be a tie, maybe 360 is better, I haven't been able to test out IE on the 360 and Crackle and all that)

Wii was in a league of its own, many people owned a Wii as well as one of the other two. Wii started the motion control craze and fun party games. It was very useful for Netflix and web browsing too, and lots of good games for it. It got a reputation as a low powered baby's toy and that hurt it, and that reputation has come over to even hurt the Wii U.

In the End I'd have to give my votes to PS3 > Wii > X360 for overall value and enjoyment potential.

[RussiaForever]

I prefer the Xbox, but the PS3 had blu-ray, which means it the one I would buy.

[AlexKitch]

From my point of view as a developer, Xbox 360.

Easier to debug, easier to test, more lenient compliance requirements, better tools, better documentation.

[deejayburnout]

Xbox was the best by far. Reason why its had such a strangle hold on the industry.

The Wii was a waste of time and money. Gimmick console for kids.

Cannot comment on PS3 as I have never really played it.

[Obscurity]

Of course nintendo wins, because wii would all like to play.

[hoggson]

I only owned an Xbox out of these, and didn't really like it. PC always wins for me!

[Gunbuster]

PS3 win for me, Uncharted and Valkyria Chronicles stand out for me.

That said I am PC gaming more these days. You can get drivers for the PS3 Eye and Six Axis so its nice not to have to re-buy those.

Wii is a bag of meh for me, I am not a Nintendo person after many tries.

The Xbox 360 is close for me, but I just never found a must have, especially as I can play many of those sorts of games on the PC. Mass Effect in particular feels better on PC, IMHO.

[Dareos]

owned xbox and ps3, used the wii a couple of times and its a good party machine, but a bit gimmicky.

Between PS3 and Xbox I would side with the xbox, regardless of the troubles the hardware had. Controller was a better design, the friends system and dashboard design was better, the Xbox Live system was far superior to the admittedly free PSN. It was also far easier to connect to the home network (XBMC etc) than the PS3. As far as the wrireless option was concerned, the early xbox 360 had a usb 54Mbps adapter, not ideal, but i still found it superior to the PS3 one, which even in the later slim models only had a g adapter, where the Xbox provided with an N adapter.

The blu ray on the ps3 was nice however, and it was a great deal quieter than the hooverlike Xbox. Its not all doom and gloom for the ps3. It was a nice device and some of its exclusives were excellent, such as the Naughty Dog and Infamous (so much better than crackdown 2) series. Nothing to compare to Halo and Gears of War however. Please dont try and put Killzone in that class, and Heavy Rain wasnt even a game, just an interactive story, and MGS4 was a tragedy, 45 minute cut scenes are not fun.

So, I dont want to come off as a fanboi, but the Xbox I felt was far superior to the ps3, but I dont regret either purchase.

Fast becoming reacquainted with PC gaming however, and avoiding MMORPGs

[aidanjt]

I'm going to go with the 360. The Wii was novel to the point that it could never be taken seriously. And Sony was late to the party and only really got caught up at the end of its life, and the PS3 is still a couple of a hundred titles short of the 360.