PS3 Informer

$299 Showdown: Xbox 360 Elite vs. PS3 Slim

This holiday, the two giants of current-generation gaming will battle head-to-head for budget consumers at a lower price point. Both the formidable PS3 and the ever-popular Xbox 360 Elite will be available for the price of $299 USD in the United States and 299 Euros in Europe. This is a fantastic bargain no matter which current-gen system you buy, but to help consumers who are still on the fence, we have broken down the feature list of each console for comparison.

With its new price tag and leaner form-factor, the PS3 clearly offers great value. Unfortunately Sony had to strip Linux support, backwards compatibility, and some memory card ports in order to get the price down. But consumers still get a great gaming machine, free online support, and a competent Blu-Ray player. There are also some intriguing services unique to Sony such as Home and PSP connectivity, which might entice some users.

The Xbox 360 Elite, even with a price drop to $299, still struggles to compete feature-for-feature. The most glaring omission is the lack of on-board wifi adaptor. Microsoft currently sells its own, expensive adaptor as an extra accessory. If gamers want to go online using their Xbox 360, they will have to pay for Xbox Live Gold, at a cost of around $49 per year. Silver members still get access to game demos, achievements, and Avatars, but little more. Finally, the Xbox 360 still relies on DVD disks for content, which is fine for games but may disappoint videophiles who want the HD capability of Blu-Ray movies. On the other hand, Microsoft is the only manufacturer to allow users to stream Netflix movies from their console, which is ultra-convenient. Zune users can also connect their devices to Xbox Live to access multimedia content.

Even though we are a fan site and obviously biased, we have to give the advantage to Sony in this case. The combination of a Blu-Ray player, solid online and a great lineup of upcoming games makes the PS3 a very tempting offer. We have to say that we are little bit worried about the cheap build quality of the new PS3, although build quality has never been one of Microsoft's strong points, either. If the Redmond giant wants to compete with Sony for attention from frugal gamers, they are going to have to make some changes to their product offering. We suggest dropping the subscription fee for Xbox Live (make it advertisement supported) and bundling a Wi-Fi adaptor in the box with the Xbox 360 Elite. That would be enough to level the playing field somewhat, but we suspect that in any case, Sony is still going to take a chunk out of Microsoft's market share this autumn.