ok im back to break down my total next gen costs thus far. Ive already spent quite a bit on this gen compared to last gen, as my cash flow has gone up since then. Well, here it is: 1 xbox360: $400 xbox360 accessories (3 controllers, 1 extra headset, one faceplate,2 chargers):$250 Xbox Live 1 year subscription, soon to run out, so add another year: $100 MS points: $120 (I buy the cards, dont like paying in credit, have bought 6 so far) About 15 games, tho trade in values mess this up. so roughly: $700 So Ive spent about $1500, probable a little more, on xbox 360 stuff. 1 Wii: Free ( got it as a gift for bday with one extra set of controllers ) Wii accessories ( 2 extra controller sets, component cables, 1gb sd card: $170 5 wii games: $250 Total Wii costs: about $420 1 PS3: $350 after trade ins PS3 accessories (2 extra contollers, mem card converter): $115 2 games: $120 Total PS3 costs: about $600 Total next gen costs: about $2500 So there you have it. A little excessive, isnt it? that brings my total game costs for pretty much the last 11 years to a total of roughly $6000, give or take a few hundred. This is not including tax either, which is 7% here in nj. Although i purchased the ps3 and 360 in low income areas, where the tax is 3.5%. Ridiculous, but im sure theres many hardcore gamers out there who spend way more. What can i say? In my teens i spent all my money on games, pot, and trying to bang chicks. now i have more money to spend even with the kids and other bills adults pay. but i will probably stop spending as much. As I said, im not buying anymore good games, only great ones. more money to spend on escorts, because my wifes body just aint the same anymore. cant wait for vegas with the guys, saving up for isabella soprano of the bunny ranch!

Actually 6000 over 11 years doesn't sound so bad. That's what, 600 a year or about 50 a month?

The only systems that I've bought at launch were the N64 and GBA. Otherwise, most are worth waiting a year or so for the bugs to be worked out of the manufacturing process and a decent library of compelling games that have dropped in price a bit. With that being said, I have both the DS and PSP but haven't gotten any of the new generation home consoles. And at this rate the only one that's on the radar for purchase is a Wii by the end of this year.

I choose what I feel will be fun. Atari 2600 = fun = owned NES = fun = owned SNES = fun = owned GameBoy = fun = owned N64 = fun = owned PS1 = fun = owned PS2 = fun = owned GC = fun = own x-box = not that great fun = owned Wii = kinda fun, but needs games. Coming. = own PS3 = Fun = own 360 = Fun, but not owned. Basically what I am saying is, I love games. I have fun on every console. How much? Depends on the games. The x-box games were fun and all but never really amazed me. The GameCube games were 2nd only to X-box in how bad they were. I say what I do about the Wii as, I've played 2 games on it that I think were fun, but one was just a zelda. I was quite dissapointed in it. (fun but not great fun) Wii sports. This is really fun, but the lack of depth... makes it not that fun. However I am eagerly awaiting the harvest moon, SSB, and possibly a few others. (announced) I buy what I think I will enjoy the most. Wich ends up being all of them. As sometimes even the PS2 went 6months without a single great game. Buy a x-box... and you got 2-3 great games to play. Buy a GameCube... you got about 7 or 8 great games. I in a way wish I had waited on the Wii. I mean, there's not much for the PS3 out yet, but I could almost have bought a 360.

Let's see, the last three systems I bought it was a combinations of: A, do I have the money? and B, is there a game on the system I must have? For the DS I waited until after Christmas '05 and got AWDS, The GC was the same and for Soul Calibur 2 (foolish me), and with the PS2 it was for CVS2. With the Wii, I am waiting for Galaxy. The PS3 hasn't shown me anythign I need yet, but I suspect it will. I won't hold my breath on the 360, as its predecessor never provided a game I truly felt I mustplay.

Kwaad's back?

It was really simple for me this gen, really. To put it short and simple : Nintendo got me back in gaming, and I buy a system as soon as there are 3 games I want to play on it. I'm a casual gamer, always have been. I always bought consoles because of games though. To put it longer : I'm mostly a RPG fan. But more J-RPG than western RPG (even though I used to play lots of true tabletop RPG). I've actually still not finished BG2 or NWN extensions that I bought several years ago, but finished several J-RPG on console in the same time span. And when I say I love J-RPG, I talk about those I consider the good ones, not all of them are good to me. It's important to me, as I keep all my games. The only crap J-RPG I got, is Legend of Dragoon from Sony. All the J-RPG on the XB360 are the same crap quality range as Legend of Dragoon to me, except for the Mistwalker ones perhaps, which I would put in the Grandia class to me (good, but not worth buying a console for). So, I stopped playing games in 2001, when the PS2 was out, as I disliked FF8 (fortunately I didn't buy it, and never finished it), and FF9 was barely good. I didn't have much time to play anymore anyway, and had other projects. But I managed to buy a GBA and Knights of Lodis in Japan in 2002. That was mainly in anticipation for FFTA which is a HUGE game, that I just restarted in 2007 to get everything right, like I love to do in RPG I love (and I expect it to take 200 hours at least to do that). Then, in 2004, I was hooked by the Zelda WW intro. I pondered the idea to buy a console again, then I went to investigate. I was just wowed by the quality that emanated from the Nintendo system and peripherals (and remembered my SNES still work, while my PS1, of which the DVD drive was changed once, is nearly dead, despite not touched for years). I looked at the games, and saw this could be good. Then, when the pack with all the Zelda before WW + Mario Kart DD launched, at a cheap price, I bought it with Zelda WW. Notice I already had 3 games I thought I liked from the start. I was never a Zelda fan, so I still have not finished any of these, but I plan to finish WW (very good game, but I still prefer my RPG) one day and to play the N64 ones too. Anyway, one of my brother-in-law had a GC too, and lent Mario Party 4 to my wife ... Mario Kart was already the first time she played a console and anjoyed it, but Mario Party was sth that took me by surprise : she wanted to play it more than me, and it was actually fun !! So the GC was a hit for me, but now, I wanted more, and went to look at RPG. There were only two : Fire Emblem and Tales of Symphonia. I took an hour pondering which one was good, and went for the tactical rather than an action RPG I usually don't like. Oh boy, what an incredible experience was this FE ! To think I started it with a bad feeling, with people saying it was so hard it was frustrating, and lots of things I wasn't used to. This was a smash hit for me. Months later, I was starved for good RPG (yes, despite the western RPG on my PC that are unfinished), and went for Tales of Symphonia. Oh boy ! Another smash hit. GC hooked me so much on Nintendo quality and games, that I finally bought a DS, mainly because of Advance Wars, which was a game from the same internal studio as the one that made FE on GC. I still bought the DS for three game : FFTA (better with DS screen), Advance Wars, and Brain Age. Again, my wife plays it more than me (I bought a DS Lite later, when the black one launched), playing Brain Academy (or sth like that), and she even BOUGHT a game (!!!!), which is NSMB ! I couldn't believe this ! Anyway, given all that, when the Wii was announced to launch in December, it was clear to me that it would be the first console I get on launch date. Because as the Nintendo games made me buy the DS, knowing that FE sequel and the latest Mario Party was going to the Wii in 2007 was enough to make me want to buy the console right away. The third game was Zelda at launch. Given the little time I have to play games, only buying these will last me until far into 2008, when they launch. And I have several games to finish until they launch in Europe (Tales of Symphonia needs at least 3 playthroughs to get everything, and it's so good I will make these 3 more playthrough, especially since the bonus system is quite good). I bought Sonic too on Wii, and it made me hope a little that perhaps I will delay modding my Wii, as it had the original japanese language on it. If FE comes with the japanese language (unlike FE on GC, or ToS which was butchered, and is so much better in japanese) then it will be perfect, and I will delay the modding to get the japanese exclusive games I like. I used to mod my consoles as I bought my RPG in japanese mostly. The only decently translated ones were the Squaresoft ones after FFVI (mainly FF Tactics and FFVII, I don't know for Xenogears).

If I buy a console, it's usually at launch. I will buy a system if there are enough compelling games on them. I waited to buy the GC until Zelda: WW came out. I will probably wait for the PS3 to drop substantially in price or when FF13 and MGS4 comes out, whichever comes first. I haven't bought any of the Xboxes yet, since I can play FPSs on my PC. As for the handhelds, I always buy them at launch because I love gaming on the can.