Of course I'm not saying it's fair, but life isn't Fair.  Nintendo has a huge back-catalog and signed on all the big companies to release their games on VC.  It's not that Sony or Microsoft could have done anything about it, but it doesn't stop VC from having a huge library of incredible games.

You comparing consoles to Steam now? That's the only service that really blows anything away anyway.

I don't have live, but you can video chat on PS3 outside of games, launch some games from chat (also upcoming Home), launch all PSN games without changing discs (which some PC games still require), launch some games by invite (like Rock Band), MGO was a pre-download before launch, share a lot of DLC (including Rock Band songs and most games) with up to 5 other people, and LBP and UT3 are steps in the right direction for mods.

I didn't mean custom Grand Prix. I mean for unlocking stuff by doing Cups.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.  There isn't fairness either way.  So the only way that it can be looked at is objectively, which is WW + VC > PSN/XBL.  

I was just trying to play Devil's Advocate.

while we are comparing features to PC: I have all of the VC games on PC for free. But even so, having 10-15 year old games doesn't make the service great. A lot of the games don't hold up, most of them are overpriced, and not everything people want is on it. They have slowed it down, and PCs have been emulating these things for years. For the other 2 consoles it is less of a priority because they both have BC with most of their catalogues already, both of which are far greater than what is available on VC...imo, of course...but it's hard to argue that. Most used games are cheaper than VC games.

Yeah, Wiiware + VC > PSN divided by XBL. Anyway, I think most review places would agree that your equation is using the wrong inequality sign there. But hey, if you guys would rather play Mario Kart SNES than Wipeout HD, then I have no arguement.

Saying you can play downloadable arcade games without playing discs is ridiculous.  Of course you can.  They never had discs to begin with.  Steam games obviously never require changing of discs, and very few new PC games do even in disc form.  Obviously some old ones do, but that's part of being backwards compatible... dealing with the inconveniences of the past.  MGO is predownloaded and installed?  And will unlock at launch?  

UT3 is a step in the right direction for mods, but LBP offers far less customization features than something like Garry's Mod which is $10 on Steam... 

It's not like I mentioned all the features of Steam either.  You can also check a person's ranking on the server they are currently playing right from steam, tell it to auto-join a server when a spot opens up, check available servers for a game without even launching it, use an instant messenger service with basically all the features of AIM, form groups (I'm part of the VGC group), buy package deals on games that will save you quite a lot of money,  check top selling games, sort by metacritic score, check playtime (broken down by game) and achievements/stats within each game right from the community page, and of course download demos and trailers.

? You mean you want exactly the same thing as 1p GP (which has much less options than custom) except for 2p. What's the point..... unless you mean using it to unlock stuff instead of doing 1 player. That mode would basically be used once because after unlocking everything you would switch to the better custom version. And an online version of it wouldn't work because some friends would have unlocked stuff before you. If I had wanted to unlock stuff with a friend I could have just taken turns on 1p GP for about 2 hours to unlock most stuff. As it is I don't see the problem with unkocking things first then inviting friends over (or online) to custom GPs

Emulation is illegal.  I can pirate every modern PC game for free, and emulate everything from PS2 on back.  Guess that adds another service for PCs... *rolls eyes* Saying you can do something illegally and that makes a feature bad is total BS. 

As far as costs go, Castlevania (a 5th gen game) is $10 on PSN and XBLA.  The only added feature to it is some cleaned up graphics.  The exact same thing that VC does to games, for the exact same cost.  OoT is also $10.  Would I rather play Mario Kart SNES than Wipeout HD? No, but I would rather play Ocarina of Time or most of the other 3 dozen games I listed previously.  

Yeah, steam is the best. That's why Live sucks on PC. But it's not as bad as you made it seem, the consoles that is.

The MGO beta was available for download before the servers were up, yeah...

Some of those things are better on PSN, like sharing game downloads with up to 5 people. That's better than packaged deals, which are also available for stuff like Warhawk that have expansions.

Anyway, I agree Steam leads, but consoles aren't far behind now (Live have movie downloads, PSN should but Sony is slow despite owning a freaking movie studio and music label). Then far behind is the Wii.