Our family has always been a Nintendo family. The house is full of DS's, 3DS's, and we have a Wii and a Wii U. All consoles have had a good amount of usage, with the Wii U being played the most at the moment.

Trouble is, Wii U hasn't taken off so well in the UK, and so the kids don't have as many friends who own a Wii U as they did when they were playing the Wii. Many of their friends' parents have bought them PS3's over the past two years and a number of their friends have been saying they're getting PS4's for Christmas.

The main reason my kids are interested in a Playstation is because they want to be able to play FIFA 15 and Minecraft online with their friends - two games that are not available on the Wii U. They already have these games for the PC, but the laptop they use is on its last legs and makes the games pretty unplayable. Plus, replacing it with somethng decent will be more expensive than a PS4, and they're fairly good at wrecking PC's!

When asked what other games would they play if they had a Playstation, they have no idea. Yet they can't wait for the Nintendo games that are coming around the corner like Smash Brothers and Splatoon, which has made me hesitate about getting a Playstation until now.

Part of me wants to get them a PS4 - I'm aware there's a bundle coming out for £350 that includes both Minecraft and Fifa 15. (please correct me if I'm wrong) On the other hand, PS4 is not backwards compatible and there are still games coming out for the PS3 - which now retails at around £150.

We will not be getting any games that are rated PEGI 16 and above, and my kids are not interested in how powerful the console is or what's under the hood. I'm also wary that my kids will be exposed to chat and video chat with people across the internet that they don't know. I'm aware that there are parental controls, but from the research I've done so far they tend to be either too restrictive or too lenient - although many deride the friendcode system Nintendo has, I actually prefer it for my kids.

And this may be a silly or ignorant question, but if one kid is playing FIFA 15 on their PS3 and the other is playing it on their PS4, are they still able to play online against one another?

So, basically, with those factors in mind, I need your help in making my decision as to whether I should get a PS3 or PS4 for my kids this year.

Thanks!

I got a ps4 and wii u my kid is 6 he never plays ps4 but loves wii u always on hyrule warriors and zelda etc. ps4 you have to pay for online aswell. but yeah seems no one has a wii u in uk

if you have fifa on ps4 you cant play against ps3 users and vice versa

Get a PS3. It's pretty cheap and has a huge list of great titles (most of which you can buy pretty cheaply now). The PS4 will likely end up with just as many great titles, but it takes a while to accumulate a library of that size.

To answer you last question, most titles like FIFA are locked to their respective gen. There are some exceptions, but usually only in games where it's a necessity (such as FF14). The PS3 community is still very active though, and match making algorithms are (usually) a lot more efficient than they were in the past. There should be no issues finding people to play with.

On a side note, if you do get a PS3 i'd definitely recommend the Ratchet & Clank Future series. Has been one of my favorite games series since i was a kid ^^ Ain't nothing as satisfying as forcing your enemies to dance with the Groovitron

PS3; much bigger and better library, plus cheaper.

Tough choice. Ps4 is obviously the future, but PS3 has the games now. Paying for online isn't really an issue because you should get Psn+ for the instant game collection no matter which console you choose.

In the end you should go with what the majority of the friends will have after the holidays.

I say it's too early to buy a PS4, it has only been a year and the library is still rather underwhelming, especially in the software segments you seem to prefer for this use.
I say get a PS3; they're really cheap and it has a good library of games, many of which go for only a few bucks.

Also depends on how old they are, if you buy a PS4 they can be using it to play more newer games when they are a bit older. Though the PS3 has build up an amazing library of games, so if your kids don't mind playing older games then that is the option for now. The PS4 is more of an investment in the future.

Hmm on one hand, especially if their friends currently are on PS3s, you're better of with that. Cheaper hardware and software.
If you don't care about the past library though and most important system sellers are Minecraft and FIFA, and money would not be the issue + some of the friends are migrating to the PS4 this Xmas, those games are simply better on the PS4 so I would get that.

The PS3 is the way to go for now but you should definitely invest in getting a ps4 for the future.