From Xbox to PS3

Two Xbox 360's and close to six years later, I am beginning to doubt my loyalty to Microsoft. In a world where I can enjoy all three consoles of the current generation, for me, the console battle is between which gaming machine I choose to power on when it comes time to game. For over six years I have been a stagnant supporter of Microsoft, but has the company gone a little stale in the innovation department later or are there future offerings going to blow Sony out of the water?

When Sony's PS3 first came out I thought that I would never want to own the machine, after all I never owned a PS1 or PS2, so why would I want to own a PS3? Times and my thinking changed after Blu-Ray won the battle for the HD generation of movies and even though I bought the xbox's HDDVD add on I sprung for a PS3 in order to experience all future movies in gorgeous 1080p. Skip ahead two years and I still only have one game for the system, LittleBigPlanet, and I have no intention of buying any more. Things changed when Sony starts to get its act together.


Does this make you want to buy a PS3?

Early advertising issues aside, Sony really stepped its game up in 2010. When I walked into Gamestop, I found piles of used PS3 games that I had missed and that could be played during my gaming sessions for months. Now I have to play catch up before big sequels are released later this year, like Resistance 3. But you might say that the Xbox has the same amount of great exclusives, and I will grant this point. The two things that make the PS3 stand out are Blu-Ray discs and an open platform.

Blu-Ray discs aren't only great for watching HD movies, simply put game developers can cram more stuff onto a Blu-Ray disc than an Xbox 360 DVD. I believe that is the reason we are seeing collections of games appearing on the PS3 and not the Xbox 360. The God of War Collection got the train rolling, and now we are seeing Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, and Sly Cooper all receive collections on one disc for a reduced price. It is the best deal on the market, because you get two or three great games for less than one new game.

The openness of the PS3 is a debatable topic. But the point that I want to make is the availability of MMO's on the console. DC Universe has become one of my go to games lately and it is an experience that I can't have on the Xbox. Why aren't more developers making MMO's for the 360? Any new MMO could easily topple Final Fantasy XI, but Microsoft puts too many restrictions on the availability of content on the Marketplace, no MMO's and no day 1 digital downloads. Mass Effect 2 came out digitally and in retail stores on the same day. And with Steam coming to the PS3 things might get even better.

I'm still rooting for Microsoft in the coming months, but right now Sony is winning my console batte.