My sons (ages 8 and 6) want a video game system for Christmas. And honestly, so do I.
But I haven't bought a video game system since the first Nintendo Wii, and the last one before that was a PS2. So I know very little about the pros and cons of the Xbox and Playstation platforms.
I also don't know anything about the new products they're apparently releasing next month that I'll probably end up overpaying for.
I don't need it to watch BluRay or Netflix - just a solid game platform for Madden, Tiger Woods, etc. I doubt there will be much online gaming either.
(10-10-2013 05:48 PM)Latilleon Wrote: For an 8 and 6 year old, get a Wii U.
Are you thinking current generation of next generation?
Current generation? XBox for Kinect games.
The limited games should make PS4 and XBone unattractive for your youngsters for a couple years.
Latty, This is solid advice given his parameters.
If the titles you mentioned are not available for WiiU, buy a used XBOX 360 or PS3 and get them.
I've had as many as 4 XBOX360's in the house becuase I had a haggle of teenagers palying online and I play offline all the time.
I'm going PS4, Microsoft has ruined it with me with all their demands. I'll probably wait until summer after some of the kinks are exposed. I wouldn't want the next gen version of the "red eye of death", very frustrating.
(10-10-2013 05:48 PM)Latilleon Wrote: For an 8 and 6 year old, get a Wii U.
Are you thinking current generation of next generation?
Current generation? XBox for Kinect games.
The limited games should make PS4 and XBone unattractive for your youngsters for a couple years.
Latty, This is solid advice given his parameters.
If the titles you mentioned are not available for WiiU, buy a used XBOX 360 or PS3 and get them.
I've had as many as 4 XBOX360's in the house becuase I had a haggle of teenagers palying online and I play offline all the time.
I'm going PS4, Microsoft has ruined it with me with all their demands. I'll probably wait until summer after some of the kinks are exposed. I wouldn't want the next gen version of the "red eye of death", very frustrating.
That's the thing. Best time to buy an older gen is in the first couple years of the next generation. Better prices, more product, and the developers keep making versions of games for the older gen.
When it comes to kids that young, I wouldn't buy the next generation system.
Right now at gamestops you can get good deals on PS3's as people trade them in to get on waiting lists for ps4's. that's the way to go. However, Xbox has better non gaming benefits. Especially the new one. My bro works for Microsoft & when I visit him in Seattle he shows it all off. You can sink it with your computer, TV, phone etc. pretty cool.
(10-14-2013 10:29 AM)plaidtiger Wrote: I don't understand the anti Microsoft DRM stance. It's basically the same as Steam.
Steam does library lending. Microsoft does not.
Steam has ludicrously low pricing even on AAA titles. Microsoft does not. In PS3/360 land a mega selling but old AAA is still $19.99. During a Steam sale it is $5. Maybe even less.
Steam requires no monthly payment for multiplayer. Microsoft does.
Used game sales do not apply to Steam as Steam is digital download only. Microsoft's initial refusal to allow selling of used games engendered enormous ill will. To the point Sony can walk out at major press events and say "we support used games" and get applause breaks.
Microsoft has only made the changes they have made in the face of abysmal initial pre-sales and enormous blow back from consumers and especially serious gamers. Microsoft has gone out of their way to put the screws to gamers this cycle and has earned their punishment.
This is typical of the life cycle of any Microsoft product. Innovate at first with aggressive pricing. Dominate the market. Stop innovating. Lock everything down. Squeeze the market and try to buy out competitors if possible.
It has been that way with Windows ... now losing market share to Mac and Linux. It has been that way with IE ... now nearly universally despised and well behind Chrome and Firefox. It has been that way with IIS. Now no longer the world's number one web server and well on its way to being third behind both apache and nginx. It has been that way with SQL Server which got blown away by Oracle in serious corporate enterprise and MySQL/Postgres/MariaDB/MongoDB everywhere else. It has been that way with Microsoft Office ... now losing ground to OpenOffice and LibreOffice and not even able to maintain market share amongst .edu/.gov any more. Microsoft couldn't even get Nokia off the mat to fail. The Surface was an huge failure. Even Exchange and Active Directory, arguably their biggest stranglehold on any market, is under siege by Zimbra and Samba and various other open source projects.
Microsoft is a company of dead or dieing products. That being said they'll still be a multi-billion dollar company for years because that's how big of a lead they had/have in many markets which are slow to move (OS/office suite/etc).
(10-14-2013 10:29 AM)plaidtiger Wrote: I don't understand the anti Microsoft DRM stance. It's basically the same as Steam.
Steam does library lending. Microsoft does not.
Steam has ludicrously low pricing even on AAA titles. Microsoft does not. In PS3/360 land a mega selling but old AAA is still $19.99. During a Steam sale it is $5. Maybe even less.
Steam requires no monthly payment for multiplayer. Microsoft does.
Used game sales do not apply to Steam as Steam is digital download only. Microsoft's initial refusal to allow selling of used games engendered enormous ill will. To the point Sony can walk out at major press events and say "we support used games" and get applause breaks.
Microsoft has only made the changes they have made in the face of abysmal initial pre-sales and enormous blow back from consumers and especially serious gamers. Microsoft has gone out of their way to put the screws to gamers this cycle and has earned their punishment.
This is typical of the life cycle of any Microsoft product. Innovate at first with aggressive pricing. Dominate the market. Stop innovating. Lock everything down. Squeeze the market and try to buy out competitors if possible.
It has been that way with Windows ... now losing market share to Mac and Linux. It has been that way with IE ... now nearly universally despised and well behind Chrome and Firefox. It has been that way with IIS. Now no longer the world's number one web server and well on its way to being third behind both apache and nginx. It has been that way with SQL Server which got blown away by Oracle in serious corporate enterprise and MySQL/Postgres/MariaDB/MongoDB everywhere else. It has been that way with Microsoft Office ... now losing ground to OpenOffice and LibreOffice and not even able to maintain market share amongst .edu/.gov any more. Microsoft couldn't even get Nokia off the mat to fail. The Surface was an huge failure. Even Exchange and Active Directory, arguably their biggest stranglehold on any market, is under siege by Zimbra and Samba and various other open source projects.
Microsoft is a company of dead or dieing products. That being said they'll still be a multi-billion dollar company for years because that's how big of a lead they had/have in many markets which are slow to move (OS/office suite/etc).
Yep, much to the dismay of my brother, I've been telling him for years that they need to get innovative again. Whens the last time they actually led on something. By the time they got in on tablets with the "surface", which is really confusing, even polaroid already had a tablet on the market.
I tell him all of the time, my 2 year old can use an Iphone right out of the box because it's that easy. While most adults struggle to figure out Windows 8 products.
Most people don't know that Bill Gates gave Steve Jobs Billions of dollars to help Apple. Bill Gates has a vested interest in the success of Apple since his retirement at Microsoft. Ironic.
(This post was last modified: 10-16-2013 08:00 PM by BIGDTiger.)
(10-16-2013 07:59 PM)BIGDTiger Wrote: Most people don't know that Bill Gates gave Steve Jobs Billions of dollars to help Apple. Bill Gates has a vested interest in the success of Apple since his retirement at Microsoft. Ironic.
Microsoft was an Apple software provider early on.
When Steve Jobs came back to Apple in the late 90s, Microsoft bought $150 million in non-voting Apple stock and promised to continue to make the Office suite for Macs.
I've decided on an Xbox 360 (mostly because of the Kinect).
My last question - do I NEED the 250GB model? Or will the 4GB suffice?
I don't plan to download any music/addtl games, and most of their gameplaying will be sports (football, golf, basketball, etc.).
(11-25-2013 04:01 PM)BrianJ Wrote: Bringing this thread back up...
I've decided on an Xbox 360 (mostly because of the Kinect).
My last question - do I NEED the 250GB model? Or will the 4GB suffice?
I don't plan to download any music/addtl games, and most of their gameplaying will be sports (football, golf, basketball, etc.).
4GB unless you are going to be saving stuff beyond just regular game saves.
I had the 4GB and it worked fine for me and I only got a hard drive to be able to play my original XBox games.
I don't know of the HD does anything for the Kinect.
I'd go with the 250GB model. Just for the fact that you can buy games and add-ons directly from the Marketplace Store. Plus if you want to keep separate profiles for each one of you - then you will need the space.
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Playstation or Xbox?
