Well I don't assume you must get 4 controllers however here is my point on the whole thing, 4 controllers should not cost over £200 to rig to normal standard use. On the 360 here is how it would break down: (using GB prices from HMV) 360 wired controller £24.99 official, £19.99 unofficial. 2 of these + 2 wireless controllers at £39.99 means, 4 controllers can come to as little as £129.96 for all 4 controllers to be official on the basis of 2 wired, 2 wireless. On the PS3 it comes to £39.99 for each controller or £159.96 for 4 pads. Now acceptable arguments include the cost of batteries for the 360 pads but I'm going to disregard that because frankly there is no need to buy a rechargable quick charge kit or a plug and play/charge kit. As far as gaming goes, the PS3 and 360 pads will work perfectly well out of their packaging for that money, the Wii controllers increasingly need to have Wii Motion plus on them, therefore how can you sit there saying Microsoft force people to use official products or to buy periphials when Nintendo's controllers alone scream out that they are a rip off. Bluntly ask a Nintendo executive to justify charging nearly £100 more for 4 controllers in full function compatability with their console and any game released compared to their competitors, I bet that he can't.Originally Posted by Yeargdribble
tldr version at the bottom (before my note)
You're correct. Wii does have a lot of accessories, but few of them are necessary. I have a pair of controllers with nunchuks. One I had to buy, the other came with the console. Together a Wiimote+Nunchuk retails for $60. A 360 controller retails for $50 and PS3 controllers range from $55 to $75. You automatically assume since I can play with 4 people that must do and therefor buy all of the controllers, but that's a spurious argument. The controller cost issue is relatively the same across all consoles, probably being worst with PS3. If I want to get a Wii Motion Plus (or 2) I'll just pick up Wii Sports Resort and get two of them in the box.
Thats good that you don't need some gimmicky attachments to play, however a LOT of people are suckered in to buying these things or simply resort to buying the plastic gun frames to make holding the damn thing feel more comfortable. I suppose in a way the world of nintendo fans should be grateful they didn't think to bring out an official light gun controller and decide that to play FPS or Arcade FPS games you must use that because going on Nintendo's track record so far it'd cost around £70 to get each one.I got one of the Wii-wheels with Mario Kart and bought another one for $5 when I saw it on sale. Not so bad a deal. I don't need some plastic gun thing or gimmicky sports attachments to play.
I agree the Wii is the cheapest console unit out there, but it's lack of serious games and extortionate controller prices and gimmicky accessories they try to ram down your throat and the short lifespan of the Wii remote (I see customers come in all the time having worn these things out til they break) and it's periphials means Nintendo's Wii is by far the most expensive console to maintain. The ps3 hard-drive you speak of would not be official and therefore if it was incorrectly installed and caused problems bye bye warrantyMy Wii cost $250 when I bought it. At the time the 360 cost $400. My Wii came with built-in wireless. If I added that to a 360 I'm up to $500 for a tiny HD. If I wanted to upgrade the HD in a PS3 I would spend $100 and get probably 500 Gigs whereas for the same price I would've gotten maybe 40-60 Gigs for the 360 because Microsoft made it proprietary.The biggest official PS3 hard drive is 250gb, exactly the same as the one in the biggest xbox console, the super elite. Ironically the Xbox 360 super elite costs £250 comes with 2 wireless controls and Forza 3 along with the download codes for extra content from the special edition (though you don't get the keyfob ect from the special edition) this is exactly the same as a PS3 with a 120gb hard drive. The 250gb PS3 costs £300 on it's own with 1 control pad. (again information taken from HMV where I work including content of the super elite bundle and prices)
Wireless isn't essential and it's probably advisable to if possible use an ethernet cable to directly go from router to 360/PS3/Wii (yes this is true of all consoles) this is because any interference would directly affect your online play and it's VERY easy to disrupt a wireless internet signal even across such a short distance as a living room. However I will point out that the wireless adaptor for 360 did originally cost £59.99 in the UK. It currently retails at £29.99 in the UK which is a big drop in price as does a 60gb hard drive. Now for a wireless headset for the PS3 you're looking at £29.99 for a decent one. All of a sudden thats not such a big difference after all. I am also curious as to your references of buying a wireless router. What you are buying is a Wireless adaptor, thats very different from a wireless router in fact I believe you might even get away with any cheap one but have never tested this so please, don't take this as gospel truth. As far as buying a router goes, yes they are expensive but as you rightly said there is no requirement that you use wireless and the 360 comes with an ethernet cable in the box.I suppose you could make it without the stupid $100 wireless thing from MS and just make a bridge with a router (which I will be doing), but that still costs you. It's humorous that you argue how the Xbox 360 (Elite) comes with a headset in the box and the PS3 does not. But the PS3 has wireless out of the box and 360 does not. Headsets are cheaper than wireless routers last I checked. Fine, Xbox has more stable online and PS3 (and Wii) has it free. It's give and take, but that doesn't make anyone necessarily better than the other nor does it protect any of them from reasonable criticism where they fail.
This statement here is utter bollocks sorry. I have a 360. I have 1 wireless controller as came with I have 20gb of hard drive as came with my 360 (and yes sometimes I do consider upgrading it), I do have the wireless adaptor for xbox 360 which did cost me £59.99 but thats my choice to buy that. I do not own a play and charge kit, I do not own a quick charge kit I do happen to own several AA rechargable batteries and the charger for them. So please explain to me where I was forced to buy any accessories for my 360 made by Microsoft? My 360 is more than playable it's fantastically good fun I regulary play on it and get in excess of a weeks active gaming battery life per charged pair of batteries I have 6 batteries meaning I often have 3 - 6 weeks worth of gaming before I have to consider charging a pair up for the next. I'm an avid 360 gamer and I fail to see your point I'm sorry but Yearg for all essential purposes here you are talking completely and utterly out of your ass please listen to 360 owners about 360 consoles we tend to know more than non owners after all we're living with the machines.With a Wii you can buy lots of silly gizmos if you want but you don't have to. Most of them are third party scammy crap. For Xbox you practically must buy overpriced MS brand crap to even come up to par. That was my only argument against Xbox. They actively make a point of forcing consumers to buy their first party crap to make their console playable.
I'm not counterpointing you as if you were a Nintendo fanboy, don't worry you're not Roto yet! However I am making a point here that you own a Wii you should be wiser to this, Nintendo released motion plus, something what we both completely agree should have been in the basic functionality of their console to begin with. Only possible reason to hold this back and then to charge £19.99 per unit is to make more money by forcing your gamers to buy this too. Same goes for the nunchuck, the fact that it is needed for almost all games means Nintendo really to be fair to their customers be selling this and the Wii Remote for no more than the cost of a single Wii Remote. I'm very certain having looked in to getting my girlfriend a Wii and speaking to people with the console and having looked in to it from the route of I sell the damn things often enough to know it is the cheapest console unit to buy but the most expensive long term console, far more so than the 360. I agree Sony crap all over their customers too and so does Microsoft, if they didn't they wouldn't be good businesses making money from us. Microsoft done a massive crap on their customers by discontinuing the most popular models of 360 during their prime allowing them to raise the price of the Arcade from £129.99 to £159.99 though at the same point this same dick move from them allowed them to drop the price of the Elite to £199.99 from £249.99 which did make an awful lot of difference and has directly reduced the price of the Super Elite model which most likely would have retailed at £299.99 if not for the discontinuation of the Pro and Core models. Sony has shat all over it's customers more than any other games console developer so far in this round of console manufacturing imho, constant shakeup of features, functionality and even console specification is not a good thing, they seem to have settled now with the slim and lite PS3 (ironic they call it the slim when it's actually deeper in terms of front panel to back panel than the high gloss original just slimmer in terms of height and shorter in terms of length) with it's 250gb and 120gb models. However I believe it's only a matter of time before we start playing swings and roundabouts with Sony again.NOTE: Let's just be clear that we can make arguments without taking sides. I can hate Microsoft's business model and still like their console. I hate a lot of the crap Sony has done where they seem to take delight in sh***ing on their customers as well, but I love my PSP and PS2. You don't have to counterpoint this as though I were a Wii fanboy defending everything Nintendo does. Wii Motion Plus is BS and should've been in the standard Wiimote from the start. I'm just calling a spade a spade with the way Microsoft does business.
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