Engineering: the branch of science and technology concerned with the design, building, and use of engines, machines, and structures.
Concerned with the design of structures? Sounds like you could use it and architecture interchangeably when it comes to discussing game consoles, because the literal definition of:
Architecture: the complex or carefully designed structure of something.
...isn't that radically different.
So then you agree it's the best engineered of its generation when it comes to architectural design? Because that's still fitting the point of the thread.
That's how many, many people have been using the term in relation to discussing console architecture design for at least the past two years, if not longer. Terms take on different usage in different fields and different sectors of those fields. Gamers probably use engineering in the way most of us have been doing ITT; professional senior system engineers may or may not, depending on if it's in a business environment vs. casual talk on a podcast.
Joy-con Drift alone pretty much bars it from that title IMHO. SNES & Gamecube controllers were much better ergonomically and in terms of durability/reliability, too.
Sounds like a repeat of the original PlayStation, then. But that wasn't the best engineered of its gen either from a durability/reliability POV either so eh.
In what world was Blu-Ray "innovative"; it was just a larger-capacity DVD for higher-resolution video playback. And Blu-Ray players were already on the market prior to PS3's release.
PS3 had nowhere near the effect of rapid, universal Blu-Ray adoption the same way PS2 did for DVD, either. I'll agree the Cell was very innovative in terms of processor design, but Blu-Ray? That's a reach xD.
I don't think these "doomed" anything and if 3Ps had such an issue with 360 not having a HDD they'd of just treated it like they did the Wii (which not only lacked a HDD but also lacked the processing power of 360 and PS3).
If a game needed more space then they just used 2 or more DVD ROMs. Multi-disc things were a practice since the early 1990s, publishers would've found a means of working with the space or using more discs (it's not like they costed anywhere near the price of cartridges; they also costed less than Blu-Ray discs).
Those are two factors in favor of PS3, sure, but Blu-Ray was seen as (and in many ways WAS) a hindrance for the first few years. Also, let's not pretend 360 didn't ship with HDD; the more popular of the two models shipped with a HDD.
Far better? That's a bit of a reach, and also comes down to tastes. As good as a game like GT5 looked for example, Forza Motorsport had a more "complete" look partly because they didn't do some dumb "premium cars" thing to make up for overambitions and bad time/resource management. Most multiplats still looked and ran better on 360 towards the end of that gen.
That was for the launch units and units manufactured up until somewhere in 2007.
SSFF has a
great mini-doc on RROD it also clears up some of the misconceptions surrounding what the nature of it was, and what systems were (and weren't) affected.
In total, RROD mainly affected the first 12 million 360s manufactured from the 2005 - early 2007 period. However, because some of those were still in distribution channels even when the revised units showed up, Microsoft had to hedge their bets and provide extended warranties for all the units regardless, in case someone purchased a system affected by RROD.