So it’s time for the 3rd and final part of my look at the top tier of gaming consoles available today. If you haven’t already done so I’d advise taking a look at the first and second parts of this series before reading this final instalment.

In this final part I thought I’d spend a few minutes looking at the future of the consoles as I’m sure everyone is interested in the longevity of their investment. So first lets take a look at the Nintendo Wii. I think one of the things that will keep me coming back to this fine console will be the continued innovation of Nintendo and 3rd party software developers. In the coming months Wii Fit will be released and this builds upon the excellent Wii Sports, so if you want a physical challenge while gaming then this will be the one for you. The virtual console channel should also keep you coming back for more with the likes of Donkey Kong, Zelda and Sim City available at the touch of a button. It is interesting that the loud chorus of disproval from many quarters when the Wii first launched has become more of a whimper, as the opposition has been won over with many outstanding releases and continued innovation from all parties involved.

So how is Sony aiming on keeping its band of loyal fans, as well as attracting new players into the Playstation 3 fold? Well for starters I firmly believe that 2008 will see the release of some triple A exclusives which should help boost popularity. Then of course we have the promise of Playstation Home which aims to take on the stellar success of Microsofts XBox Live. If you have not heard of Playstation Home before then think of it as a mashup between Second Life and Xbox Live. If they manage to deliver on their promise then this could indeed be a very real challenge to XBox Live. Also as more and more households invest in High Definition screens then I beleive we will see the increase in High Definition movie sales, and of course the Playstation 3 delivers one of the best Blue Ray experiences available today - and certainly one of the cheapest. In 2008 we will also see the return of rumble, something which I have missed almost as much as football during a non championship summer - and it will be backward compatible with many existing titles already available today.

Finally what of the XBox 360? First we of course have the new XBox Elite which addresses many of the issues that gamers raised with the first generation XBox 360, mainly the inclusion of HDMI. Just like the Playstation 3, the XBox 360 also now allows for the HD movie experience with the optional HD DVD accessory. I must admit I’m surprised Microsoft has not yet announced plans to integrate the player but having just picked one of these up myself, I can confirm that they are well worth the investment, and with the growing list of High Def movies becoming available you should have something to suite your movie tastes. In 2008 we should see the introduction in the UK of IPTV for the XBox 360 - yes that’s right on-demand TV using your XBox 360. This combined with the increasing adoption of Vista will of course allow the XBox 360 to maintain a strong position in the media centre marketplace.

To conclude I’d like to take you back to the first part of this 3 part post regarding my own opinion on the best console available? Hopefully these three posts have shown that each console has something for everyone and with the innovation of Nintendo combined with Raw power and media capabilities of the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 the future is indeed very bright for you the gamer!

Posted on November 20th, 2007 by nigel