Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360: A Comparison
The seventh generation of video game consoles has begun, with Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) being the main competitors in the home console market. This document provides information to help potential buyers and existing users compare the consoles' capabilities. It is not intended to be biased toward one console but does explain relevant features and potential drawbacks of each one.
Contents
Console Specification
Games
Inputs and Outputs
Online Connectivity
Price
Market share and future trends
Hardware issues
1. Console Specification
Aesthetics
The aesthetic aspects of each console are subjective; internet pictures may represent just one retail configuration, so look at images of models you are considering buying.
Space and mass must be considered when comparing consoles – smaller consoles may better fit near your TV. Wii and the PS3 can be placed horizontally or vertically while the Xbox 360 must be placed vertically according to official documentation. Wii is the smallest at 1720cm3 and 1.2kg, followed by the Xbox 360 at 6617cm3 and 3.5kg and the largest being the PS3 at 8727cm3 and 5kg.
Processing Power
Wii and the Xbox 360 are based on the PowerPC architecture from IBM, so clock speeds should be a relevant comparison between them, while the PS3's Cell Broadband Engine is different so clock speeds should not be compared. Certainly, due to the in-order execution, clock speeds should not be compared to PC CPUs. GPU speeds may be a rough comparison due to unique architectures.
Wii: 729MHz (estimated) single-core CPU with 243MHz ATI graphics card
Xbox 360: 3.2GHz tri-core CPU with 500MHz ATI graphics card
PS3: 3.2GHz Cell Broadband Engine (One 3.2GHz general core with six usable 3.2GHz specialised cores) with 550MHz Nvidia GPU
Wii's raw processing power is inferior to the other two, and raw graphics ability is also less, but the Wii is certainly more powerful than the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube. Wii is easy to develop for however so it will attract many games with lower budgets but may miss out on detailed ports of other consoles' games.
The Xbox 360's processing and graphics power is good and can produce highly detailed, realistic motion. The graphics card is believed to be better than the PS3s despite the clock speed because it is based on a more recent architecture. It is harder to fully use the Xbox 360's potential than the Wii because three cores requires three parallel but separate threads of execution.
The PS3's processing power is potentially the highest of the three seventh-generation consoles due to the six additional specialised cores, but major development studios have admitted it is very difficult to program for it due to it being an unfamiliar architecture and the specialisation of six cores. Many games with low budgets only use the single general core or don't release games on it at all due to development costs. The graphics power is good, but considered to be slightly less than the Xbox 360.
Memory
Wii: 24MB of fast graphics card memory, 64MB of CPU/GPU shared memory and 3MB of frame buffer memory.
Xbox 360: 512MB of slower CPU/GPU shared memory and 10MB of frame buffer memory.
PS3: 256MB of on-CPU memory accessible by the GPU but much slower and 256MB of GPU-only memory.
The Xbox 360 and PS3 have similar memory configurations which are good for highly detailed games while the Wii has much smaller and slower amounts of memory. Again, however, all three consoles have more memory than the previous generation.
Storage
This is the first generation of consoles to encourage downloaded content to be stored in permanent memory. The PS3 and Xbox 360 encourage connectivity with PCs and have large hard drives for storing music, videos, arcade games, downloaded extras and in the case of the PS3, operating systems. The Wii has special downloaded channels and online games from independent developers and past consoles.
The Wii only has one configuration which has 512MB of flash memory expendable through SD cards which may be bought. This is sufficient for several downloads from the online store and there is no other use for it.
The Xbox 360 has either no hard drive (Core model), 20GB (Premium model) or 120GB (Elite model). This is used for online content and PC connectivity.
The PS3 originally came in 20GB and 60GB models, but the 20GB was discontinued in early 2007 and the 60GB one is expected to be unavailable by late autumn 2007 in the US. In the US and South Korea an 80GB model has been introduced with less backwards compatibility than previous models.
2. Games
Overview
There are many games available for all three platforms. PS3 is considered to have a smaller lineup than the other two and as of 2007 many major games have been delayed to late Q4 or 2008. Traditionally cross-platform games like movie tie-ins sometimes do not appear on the PS3 perhaps due to development costs, but some high-budget titles do not come to the Wii because of the inferior processing power.
Games are divided into first-party, made by the console manufacturer and usually exclusive to that platform, second-party which are made by a wholly-owned subsidary of that company, and third-party made by outside developers. The Wii's manufacturer Nintendo has traditionally made many quality first-party games but consoles have lacked many third-party titles, Xbox 360's manufacturer Microsoft usually makes hardcore shooter games and has widespread third-party support, and PS3's manufacturer Sony has a weaker first- and third- party lineup than the other two.
Regional lockout means games bought in one region (usually North America, Europe, Oceania and Japan are the regions) cannot be played in another region. It is enforced on the Wii, available to publishers on the Xbox 360 and is not on the PS3.
Audience
As a general (mainly subjective) trend, Nintendo has had a younger following, but their Wii is receiving greater sales from adult and female audiences with casual games as well as releasing games for their core fans. The Xbox 360 has a core audience of primarily teenage and young adult boys who mainly play shooters and sandbox violence games, but Microsoft is trying to release casual games with limited success. Sony's PS3 has a variety of titles appealing to existing gamer audiences but few have been released.
Backwards Compatibility
Wii directly plays Gamecube games from their original discs with very few issues and there is a large library of older games available for download from the online Virtual Console from NES, SNES, N64, Turbografx-16/PC Engine, Mega Drive/Genesis and MSX (Japan only).
Xbox 360 plays a limited number of Xbox games through software emulation.
Early PS3 models play most PS and PS2 games with few issues – incompatibility is due to not following earlier guidelines on game development. All 80GB models and all PAL models lack the hardware to directly play them, and a lot of older games have issues. The Sony website has a list of compatible games.
3. Inputs and Outputs
Controllers
Wii's main controller, the Wii Remote, was designed specifically for motion, orientation, position sensing and screen pointing. It can be held horizontally or vertically depending on the game. The Nunchuck attachment (many attachments can be used) has a separate motion sensor. Using the remote for games is not unfamiliar in well-designed games it has most of the same functionality as a Gamecube controller, along with an inbuilt speaker and rumble. In addition to the Wii Remote, a variety of controllers are available to suit the game, such as a microphone, Wii Wheel, Wii Balance Board and Wii Zapper.
The Xbox 360 Controller is similar to the Xbox controller in layout and also has dual-analog controls.
The Sixaxis has motion-sensing too, although not as extensive or integrated into the games as much as the Wii Remote and there's no pointer or attachments. Dual-analog stick controls are available and mainly used for FPS games. The control layout is similar to previous PlayStation consoles.
Optical Media
Wii uses the Wii Optical Disc, which has similar capacity to the DVD, has faster loading times than DVD, and cannot be used easily by unlicensed developers. Wii plays Gamecube discs, but does not play DVD as of 2007.
The Xbox 360 uses 12x speed DVD and supports CD as well as an HD-DVD optional add-on.
The PS3 uses 2x speed Blu-ray Disc for games. It also supports DVD, CD and SACD. The Blu-ray functionality gives much higher storage space than DVD but similar loading times.
Video Output
Wii supports EDTV (Enhanced Definition) 480i, 480p and 576i. It ouputs to RGB, Component, S-Video, Composite, SCART and D-Terminal.
Xbox 360 supports HDTV (High Definition) 480i, 480p, 576i, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. It ouputs to RGB, VGA, SCART, Component, S-Video, Composite and HDMI 1.2 (except Core model).
PS3 supports HDTV (High Definition) 480i, 480p, 576i, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. It outputs to RGB, Component, S-Video, Composite and HDMI 1.3a.
4. Connectivity
Online
It is advised that you have a wireless router to fully take advantage of the consoles' online services.
Wii uses the free Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to connect to the internet. Some Wii Channels use the connection for online updates such as news and weather. The WiiConnect24 service provides 24-hour updates to certain services while on standby. Some games use the connection for online multiplayer. Wii Points are purchased online or in certain shops and can be used to pay to download the Virtual Console games or WiiWare content such as the Internet Channel.
The Xbox 360 uses the Xbox Live service to connect to the internet. The connection is either free (Silver) or subscription-based (Gold); only the pay-for connection allows online multiplayer. The console comes with an Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN) client, and has an online marketplace with arcade games and other content available to download for purchasable Microsoft Points. The Xbox 360 can be used with a webcam and headsets.
The PS3 uses the free PlayStation Network to connect to the internet. An upcoming service, PlayStation Home, allows users to set an avatar for their console and create a virtual room containing items related to achievements. The PS3 can be used with a webcam and headsets, and comes with a proprietary internet browser. The online PlayStation Store has games and other content available to download for real currency. Some games use the connection for online multiplayer.
Hardware
Wii has Nintendo DS connectivity on some games via Wi-Fi with firmware support for e.g. DS demo downloads promised in future updates.
Xbox 360 connects to PCs running Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre Edition and Microsoft Windows Vista.
PS3 connects to PSP via Wi-Fi for media purposes and a possibility for game connectivity
5. Price
This is the US price of the consoles and games. Japanese models and games tend to be very slightly cheaper and PAL models and games much more expensive than the US at current exchange rates.
Wii: $250
Cheaper than any of the other consoles, fully-functional and comes with one wireless controller and Wii Sports.
Xbox 360:
Core: $280
The cheapest model, but has proved unpopular because it is missing some key features such as it only having a wired controller. It has a white exterior.
Premium: $350
This model includes a 20GB hard drive, a component cable, a wireless controller, a free month of Xbox Live Gold, an HDMI port, a headset and a white exterior with chrome.
Elite: $450
This model includes everything in the Premium model plus an 120GB hard drive instead of 20GB, and a a black exterior with chrome instead of white.
PS3:
The PS3 is the most expensive of the three consoles to to the high cost of the Cell Broadband Engine CPU and the Blu-ray player. At launch it was estimated each PS3 cost Sony $850 to manufacture so they are making a significant loss on each one sold.
20GB: Discontinued
60GB: Discontinued in US but remaining stocks $499
80GB: US and South Korea only, $599 and includes Motorstorm.
6. Market share and future trends
As of August 14, 2007:
Wii has sold 10.1 million units (41.2% market share) and is selling over 200,000 units a week worldwide and is nearly always sold out.
Xbox 360 has sold 10.32 million units (42.1% market share) and is selling over 50,000 units a week worldwide.
PS3 has sold 4.11 million units (16.7% market share) and is selling just under 100,000 units a week worldwide.
The future trends appear to be that the PS3's weekly sales are falling due to the discontinuation of the cheaper model to leave it at the historically very high price of $599, the Xbox 360's weekly sales are expected to rise slightly because of the recent price cuts, and the Wii will continue to sell out so sales will be supply-limited but very high. Wii will likely overtake the 360 in unit sales within the month. Q4 this year has lots of highly anticipated titles on every platform so expect universally high sales.
At the moment, both Sony and Microsoft are losing money in their game and entertainment division. For Sony, they have failed to make a profit in this area for a year now including PS2, PSP and PS3 hardware and game sales. For Microsoft, they have never consistently made a profit since entering the console business, losing around $7 billion since 2001 on Xbox, Xbox 360 and Zune. Nintendo has always made a profit and their shares have tripled in two years on the success of Wii and the DS.
7. Hardware Issues
There have been a few issues with the hardware of the Xbox 360 and the controller of the Wii. This is to clarify the situation.
The Xbox 360 sometimes suffers hardware failures known as the Red Ring of Death (RRoD), named after the lights that signify a general hardware failure. It is estimated that up to 33% of consoles sold even now are affected, and Microsoft has admitted all current consoles may be defective. The problem is caused by overheating of critical components likely due to poor airflow and heatsink design. Some sources say the graphics chip is capable of reaching 100OC during the summer. Microsoft has extended the warranty for this specific issue to 3 years and covers all transportation and repair costs. They have taken a $1 billion charge on their financial report to cover the issue. Microsoft is planning to die shrink the graphics chip and CPU to the 65nm process to decrease heat radiation from them and lessen the problem.
There has been some unconfirmed but widespread reports of the Xbox 360 scratching discs too.
The Wii Remote was apparently (unconfirmed) thrown through TV screens when the wrist strap broke. Nintendo has since offered free stronger wrist straps and new consoles have shipped with them. There have been no further reliable reports of this.
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