Threeway on the online freeway
Starting this holiday season, consumers are faced with a fascinating and groundbreaking choice when looking to buy one of the new videogame consoles as one of the season's obligatory electronic gift-gadgets. The choice is that the three major contenders: Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's Playstation 3 and Nintendo's WII (pronounced "whee!") are not just differently priced variations of the same thing, but different approaches to implementation of the target technology. This may have happened before, but I can't think when.
Since the beginning of the electronic gizmo era, we buyers have had to pick digital entertainment devices on the basis of pricing, content availability and some uneducated guess as to which of the several incompatible formats would be left standing at the end of the day. VHS or Beta? Nintendo or Playstation? iPod or Zune?
This is different. The Xbox360 was released last year and is principly designed for people who want to play online live games with others a la Xbox live. The PS3 is a monster game system with everything imaginable thrown in including a DVD format (Bluray) so new that we haven't cracked its protection scheme yet. The really interesting one is the Nintendo WII. This device uses a wireless controller and attached "nunchuk" to provide a completely new gaming experience as the remotes have to be physically swung to match the online action. You manipualte the controller like a tennis racket, a steering wheel or a sword and can actually break out a sweat while playing a game.
The three consoles are priced differently, ranging from the low of the WII ($200ish after supplies pickup) to the high of the PS3 ($500-600)
I think that we're entering a golden age of electronic consumerism and this example points the way. The electronic gadget industry has matured enough to where there is more than one way to build a device and we consumers can only benefit from the diversity.
Posted on December 11, 2006
