Gaming prices have hidden costs

Sorry for the lateness in posting. Work got insane and I had end of the year deadlines for work....

So just recently Walmart had this crazy deal for a Microsoft Xbox 360 for $200 plus $100 giftcard. People were talking about it all over the internet. Great deal but it brings to light one of the issues I have with the 360 which is both a good and bad thing: buying seperate components.



Let's compare the game consoles:



Wii

With the wii, there is only one version and one version alone. You do not get a hard drive, wireless is built in, that's it. Very simple and straightforward. $200 nets you the standard gear and lets you fully enjoy all your crappy minigames.



PS3

Yes, there are multiple version of the ps3 in the beginning, which was REALLY ANNOYING, and certain versions had variations, such as the number of usb ports, flash reader, and I think the very first one did not come with wifi. I'm ignoring the backwards compatibility at this point, as I think Sony has dropped the idea as a feature, even though I still use mine to play PS2 games on a regular basis. However, they did not cripple their systems to monetize them later. The one without wifi cannot ever have wifi built into it, same with the usb ports (although you can buy or get free usb hubs), and the hard drive can be swapped out for any 5400 RPM notebook hard drive. They cut out features to save on cost. At this point though, I think the only difference between the newest version of the PS3 is simply hard drive size. But you can buy the smallest version and it'll play your games and do stuff just fine for $300 even.



360

This is what bugs me: they sell different versions with different features and allow you to upgrade your slightly inferior systems at a price. Take a look at the Arcade unit. It has no hard drive to store data, so your save games need to be on a card and games will take longer to load instead of being installed to your console, no wifi to connect so you'll need to have a cable actually plugged into your hub/router. Both the Wii and PS3 have wifi, why not the 360????



Now, let's take the $200 arcade unit, with the $100 discount. You'll need an additional $60 to $120 for a hard drive to install games, save files, etc. In addition you'll need another $100 for a wifi adapter unless you can plug it in to your router. Also, you'll need to shell out another $50 for online service. It's not cheap, and it might be worth it, but it's not the homerun people have talked about. Also, be on the lookout for cheap systems on craigslist and the like. Recently Microsoft has banned many users for pirating games, rendering their systems unable to connect online at all to download patches, new content, or play online. So that cheap 360 elite with controllers may not be a good deal for you...

I'll try to get another post up soon, I'm stuck here an extra day, possibly two, and I'm not going anywhere with 2ft of snow everywhere outside. Stay smart, stay cheap.