WTF! how many?

[Bodhesatva]

Girl Gamer Elite said:
Bods we're arguing from the perspective of consumer reality, you're arguing from the perspective of what can literally be done with a soldering iron and proper know how inspite of how the product was intended to be used. Of course there is going to be a gap, but to be honest, your argument is just getting silly and I don't think anyone even knows what your point is anymore. It just seems like you're on a mission to dissagree with anyone who suggests there is any variance, no matter how subtle, between PCs and Video Game Consoles.

Then you don't understand my point.

I absolutely agree there are differences between a standard PC and, say, a PS3.

But there are also differences between the PS3 and 360, and more emphatically, between the Wii and PS3.

Here's a good example: the Wii is profoundly less technologically capable in many regards. It's GPU and CPU are well below what the PS3 and 360 have. Moreover, it's "customizability," as has been put, is well below. You can't add a hard drive. You can't replace the hard drive. There are no additional SKUs with different specs and builds. You can't download music or movies on to your Wii.

Those are some big differences! Does that make the Wii not a console? Obviously not. It's a console, despite the fact that it has some pretty big differences from the 360 and PS3.

So here are the similarities between the 360/PS3 and PC:

1) You can easily customize the hardware by changing/replacing some hardware. I'm not talking soldering here. They sell Xbox360 upgraded HDDs at most electronic chains, and any PS3 can have an external hard drive attached.

2) You can update the OS or, in the case of the PS3, replace the OS with linux

3) You can surf the internet

4) You can watch movies

5) You can download movies

6) You can play music

7) You can download music

8) On the PS3, you can use a mouse and keyboard

9) You can keep digital photos

10) You can play games.

Edit -- also important: ten years ago in the PS1/N64 era, the only one of these things that was true was 10. You couldn't watch movies, download anything, surf the web, play music or photos or anything. None of that was true of consoles. All they did was play games. The list of salient features that a "PC" can perform that a "Gaming console" cannot has shrunk to almost nil.