Shadow1980 said:
I'll admit I'm kind of biased towards Nintendo, but only because they've earned my respect. They're not perfect, but their products are just too damn good. I've been a fan since at least 1988, and I feel they've deserved every dime they've gotten from me. That being said, I will offer my pros and cons for each of the Big Three:
Nintendo
+ Best first-party games for six generations straight
+ Reliable hardware (flashing NES power light issue and N64 analog sticks notwithstanding)
+ Free online multiplayer
+ Great quality control
+ Saved console gaming from the Crash of 1983
- I wish they made a conventional system that would get strong third-party support
- Online is free, but it's very much a "you get what you pay for" kind of thing as it's really bare-bones
- Region locking? Really?
- Some IPs get ignored. Where's F-Zero?
Sony
+ Their first-party efforts have expanded a lot in the past generation, yielding a diverse selection of excellent games
+ Always solid third-party support
+ Systems are supported for a long time (PS2 has a record-long production run of almost 13 years)
+ PSN has improved a lot in recent years
- Their controllers were terrible for three straight generations. The DS4 is a huge improvement, though.
- They were the first of the Big Three to abandon backwards compatibility
Xbox
+ Halo. The original game is my favorite FPS ever, and the series is the entire reason I invested in the Xbox brand to begin with.
+ XBL was the premier online service for years (though PSN has caught up), and while it cost money it was a great service
+ Their controllers are great. The Xbox One gamepad's shoulder buttons are too stiff, taking too much pressure to click in, but that's my only real complaint.
- Too few first-party games. They technically have a lot of good IPs, but most are just collecting dust.
- As a corollary to the above con, they rely too much on obtaining exclusivity rights to third-party games to pad their lineup of exclusives, which is an unsustainable practice in the long run (the 360 was reduced mainly to Halo, Forza, Fable, and Gears after 2009)
- Their UIs keep getting worse. The original "blades" layout for the 360 was simple and easy to navigate. The "NXE" layout that replaced it was a step down in every way that mattered. The Xbox One's UI is even worse. Everything is a moving target, it's hard to navigate, it's slow, and you can't even send voice messages.
- 343 Industries are poor caretakers for the Halo franchise IMO. The Bungie-era games are among the best FPSs ever, but Halo 4 was a disappointment, the MCC's MP is still broken after three months, and Halo 5 barely feels like Halo from my time spent in the beta. If this is what the future holds for Halo, then my desire to invest in the Xbox brand drops to almost nil.
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