Which console won the last gen war?

[Sephiroth]

Wii, PS3 or XBOX 360?

And please keep in mind stuff like "Wii because it sold the most, that's a fact so 2+2 = 4 = 9000> 8000 - (-1x-1)xdffd3d && 2+- 4i" does not count. Sales numbers are one way to define it and if you want that that is fine but it does not make it automatically the winner by universal standards that are more important than the others. I think this is a very personal thing where you can decide to make it count by sales of consoles and/or games and/or hardware and/or exclusives. It does not have to be exactly this one element.

And before you wonder what this weird post is about, I just googled "who won the console war" so I wrote this as preparation.

And of course some people here lost the game because they went against the context of this thread. Good job.

[Ayen]

Well, ya see, it was a 3 way, yo. 1 beat 2 who went on to beat 3.

[Sephiroth]

I do not know what that means but I know I am scared.

[Fynn]

Wii for me. The only one I had, it also had some of the best RPGs of the generations - and even what I consider the best RPG of all time.

Also, you wanna go universal or personal? because there's a lot of subjective reasons and people won't reach a consensus. The numbers are really the only area in which you could semi-objectively decide which "won".

[Sephiroth]

Wii for me. The only one I had, it also had some of the best RPGs of the generations - and even what I consider the best RPG of all time.

Also, you wanna go universal or personal? because there's a lot of subjective reasons and people won't reach a consensus. The numbers are really the only area in which you could semi-objectively decide which "won".

I would like a mix of both. People can use the numbers but not be like "well sales of consoles: ... and that is the only relevant one". There are many people for example who say the Wii sold the most so it is the winner but while it is a fact that it sold the most I think it is only "possibly" a way to call it the winner. Only in a certain context. Which context is the more important one for the poster and yes, if you want to be even more personal of course you can also bring in the element of which console you liked. I just think "Wii under all circumstances won because 1000>999 and this context has priority over all the others" is no good way as it does not necessarily need to be defined like that. It can but does not need to be. I for example know now that by console sale numbers the Wii would be called the winner but I think the PS3 for example is the winner because even though it does not have the highest sales numbers and games it has a lot of highly popular exclusives, it has great graphical potential, plays Blu-Rays, I like it the most, et cetera. So yes, a mix.

[Psychotic]

I don't really consider it a three way war as the Wii went for a totally different audience and it paid off dividends. If you do want to throw it in then yup, it won.

PS3 and 360 went head to head and the 360 won that. I think in sales the PS3 just about outstripped the 360 in the end (mostly due to Japan hating Microsoft) but I still think you can chalk it up as a 360 win. In the console market, brand loyalty is insane. People are absolutely ridiculous about their loyalty to big faceless corporations. If you want an example of that, just wait for the responses I'll get here for saying the 360 won Don't worry everyone, I'm a Sony fanboy if anything, I promise!

The lead the PS2 had over the Xbox in terms of sales was ridiculous. It wasn't anywhere near close. The 360 absolutely chewed that up and put them on an equal footing for large parts of that generation and I think it was a phenomenal achievement. Of course Microsoft has gone and thrown that all away with its awful Xbox One launch and as such the PS4 has re-established the brand's dominance.

It's also reflected in my own console choices as I had a PS1, PS2, a 360 and now a PS4. I also did get a second hand PS3 late in the console's lifespan and in my own subjective experience I do think the 360 was the superior machine in both accessibility and games.

[Sephiroth]

Accessibility? How so?

[Bright Shield]

Wii easily won it. Sales are all that matter when determining this. It's why the 3DS curb stomped the Vita, despite Vita having vastly superior hardware.

[Psychotic]

The infrastructure of the console. So your profile, friends, achievements, storefronts, additional apps, info on games and indeed the Xbox live service. It's all implemented in a sleeker and more accessible way than it was on the PS3. Call it ease of use, I guess.

If I'm honest I think the 360 actually beats out the PS4 on this too, although some of the new functions for this generation such as capturing screenshots and footage make the gap smaller. I have no idea if the Xbox One does as I've never used one for any great length of time but given it was originally based around Kinect which doesn't interest me I never had high hopes for it.

[Sephiroth]

Ah, this accessibility. I thought you meant for some reason the XBOX was easier to get.

[Fynn]

Wii easily won it. Sales are all that matter when determining this. It's why the 3DS curb stomped the Vita, despite Vita having vastly superior hardware.

I think it's more a matter of the Vita being dead in Japan (where handhels rule) and very little developers actually wanting to make stuff for it - SE seems to have abandoned Vita completely.

[Shauna]

Ah, this accessibility. I thought you meant for some reason the XBOX was easier to get.

For a long time it was the cheaper option, so in some ways... not completely incorrect.

[Sephiroth]

Ah, this accessibility. I thought you meant for some reason the XBOX was easier to get.

For a long time it was the cheaper option, so in some ways... not completely incorrect.

Yes but I thought Psychotic meant that in some locations it was like the XBOX was sold and the PS3 wasn't. Not because of money but because they did not have it in stores. For some reason. That is why I wondered.

[Slothy]

The infrastructure of the console. So your profile, friends, achievements, storefronts, additional apps, info on games and indeed the Xbox live service. It's all implemented in a sleeker and more accessible way than it was on the PS3. Call it ease of use, I guess.

Based on every time I've used the Xbox dashboard and Xbox Live on the 360, I'm not sure ease of use is the term I'd use for something so infested with ads and which has, at various points in it's life of updates, gone out of it's way to try and actually obfuscate certain types of developers and make it harder to buy from them in the marketplace. Don't get me wrong, the playstation store was not a UI marvel before and it's utter trout on PS3 since the PS4 was released and they updated it to something that barely runs on the hardware, but the crossmedia bar was basically about as good as I can imagine a dashboard interface ever being in terms of ease of use and ease of finding what you're looking for. It's just a better way to organize information, especially when your input device is a smurfing controller.

Anyway, who won? While considering these consoles began the trend of doing absolutely nothing to differentiate themselves from PC's I'd say the PC won.

If pressed, PS3 had the better exclusives and all of the best multiplatform games that I cared about anyway so there you go. I liked it more. Would like to get a 360 cheap someday to have a go at Forza though. Had the better controller by far as well. The 360 controller was all right, but the face buttons are too hard and uncomfortable and the d-pad might as well not even be there it's such a worthless piece of trout. Luckily Microsoft redeemed themselves by... oh wait, they made it worse with the XBone controller. Never mind.

[Loony BoB]

I owned both the 360 and the PS3 for a long time, still have 'em both. On a personal level, the PS3 slaughtered the 360 in terms of games. The 360 had top shooters and (I understand) some great driving games, but for everything else it was meh. The likes of Flower and Journey were, for me, rather mind-blowingly amazing. Uncharted ranks among my all time favourite games, too. L4D series and Mass Effect were easily my fave experiences on 360 and both can be experienced on other systems so it's not as big a draw card for me (although I did stick with the 360 for save-carry-across stuff on the ME series). Lost Odyssey had potential for the 360 but I never finished it, for whatever reason. Wipeout HD remains my absolute favourite cart/racing game. I also just prefer the PS3 controller to the 360 controller, especially when it comes to charging them.

In terms of sales, PS3 beat the 360 in the long run.

So for me it's a no-brainer. If I was the kind of person who played multiplayer first person shooters all day every day then I'd probably prefer the 360, but I don't, so... yeah.

EDIT: As for the operating system's UI, I can't say I enjoyed the 360's interface at all, but PS3's wasn't too much better. I think both take a little learning and in the end it becomes a matter of what you are used to.