There are oodles of misinformed yet geniune opinions in this thread, many of which I agree and disagree with.
Xbox 360:
First off, as a Gamestop employee, to all those saying "My OG 360 never RROD'ed...", please think about it on a larger scale for just one minute. I've dealt with HUNDREDS of failed XBOX360's over the past 3 years. It's been terrible. I remember selling christmas 360's to parents only to see them return them in February with RROD.
Just because it wasn't 100% doesn't mean it is a non-issue. On other hardware fronts, the terrible DVD scratching issues, using a tray-loaded drive in a system that, for all intents and purposes, will at some point be moved during play, seems silly. Not jumping onto Blu-ray or at least using HD-DVD as a proprietary games disc format (akin to the Wii U's road-map as of right now) was a misstep. The hardware down to the wire though slightly outpreforms the PS3, and the controller and ability to use a hard drive made it a bit better. The current USB solution also improved the situation greatly.
Software wise I understand the trepidation and appreciation on both sides. Their use of organization and support of indie developers helped push the XBLA to the top. XBLA has a far better indie scene than PC or PS3 ever did. At the same time, I think its inexcusable for us as consumers to push out $50-60 a year for online play, when competitors offer it for free.
And the argument that it comes with a more reliable service is bulls$#t, because it's literally forcing competitors to follow similar paths, charging for basic services instead of premium. Next gen you can guarantee we will be paying for online-passes for every game, on top of $50-100 a year for matchmaking and the ability to use 3rd party applications such as Netflix, instead of competing to make a better online infrastructure, for free, that makes the console an overall more desirable platform to purchase as a whole.
The controller, the aesthetics, the online features (ignoring the payments) and the game content have all gone above my expectations though, so I go into next gen 40(for)-60(against) on the Microsoft Front.
PS3:
Software and service wise, Sony has won me over. Free online, a ad-free user interface (when on your home console screen), their welcome back program, the recent collusion with Valve, and their intiation of little improvements such as cloud-saves, auto-updates through Plus, and Plus itself (charging for actual content and premium services, not basic ones). And the games have all been excellent extensions to previous IP's, the creation of new interesting and innovative ones, and a consistent effort to combine next-gen visuals with industry-standard gameplay.
Hardware wise they also won. Setting a higher standard with Blu-ray: a 100% superior product (scratch resistant, more disk space, HD video content, uncompressed audio), hard-drives as a feature, not a option, better manufacturing, bluetooth headset compatibility, rechargeable controllers out of the box, non-porprietary hardware (controllers use industry standard usb cables, system uses a standard AC power cable, hdmi does not block off optical and audio options) and backwards compatible standard AV/component cables. Also the controller has a bloody normal D-pad.
Then they went for just basic smaller size, quieter and slimmer form, and less power consumption. An unnecessary upgrade (unlike a forced or suggested one).
But as a company running the brand, they failed on all accounts. Shitty security in 2010, the revoking of advertised features (Other OS, backwards compatibility), failure to meet with its competitors on other points (still no cross game chat, late Netflix arrival, later DLC dates due to 360 priority deals) and just other ridiculous things. The constant updates, the game installations taking up so much HDD space, and the lack of any real effort to compete with 360 on the DLC stage (only PSX downloadables, few exclusives, fewer whole games). They just really need to change the way they operate when it comes to delivering the content that your customers want.
Oh, and $600 for a console is ludicrous.
I'm 65(for)/35(against) Sony for next generation. I will probably get the PSVita and PS4 within 1-2 years of their launch.
Nintendo:
Not really much to say. It wasn't really a this gen console when it came to the Wii. I didn't like the waggle feature, The nunchuk is really clumsy. and sensor bars are unreliable as a wired device (it should have been built into the system). A HDD with less than 1GB of space is no-go. Use of game-cube controllers with every Wii game that would from a customer standpoint give them a better experience by having the option, should have been there.
Great 1st and okay 3rd party software pulled it through. Smash Bros, Galaxy 1-2, Kirby Epic Yarn, Monster Hunter Tri (for me especially), NSMB Wii, DKCR, Sin and Punishment, Zack and Wiki, No More Heroes, TvC. and all the other okay-to-great games that weren't mini-game bundles pushed me through these past few years.
VC could have been so much more, friend codes are a nightmare, and online is scrapped together poorly.
The DS Lite on the other hand is probably the best handheld ever released, and deserves its 100+ millions sold.
I have no interest in the Wii U, or the 3DS on a hardware level at this point in time. If the 3DS brings the stellar software performance the DS did, count me back on board in a few years, when the console is not $250.
TL;DR: The golden age of hardware is long gone. In my opinion, software is all we have left to look forward to next gen. Lets hope they have some pity for us and leave us some free-reign with this next batch of consoles.
let's say metacritic over 80%
