Can't we all get along?!? lol.
First of all let me say that I am no fanboy. I have a 360, a PS3, a Chevy, and a Ford, and have yet to buy a WII.
The PS3 is not a rip-off when you think about it. It's actually not expensive considering all what's in it. You have a BD player, PS & PS2 (Emotion chip inside), you can install Linux on it, and now with the new update dvd's, PS, & PS2 games are upconverted (although mediocre at best lol).
Saying that it's bad that the PS3 didn't come with an HDMI cable because it's a say 'niche' kind of connection(?), is kind of like saying that MS is bad for not including a VGA adapter being that a lot of gamers are using their LCD desktop monitors and the XBOX 360 being able to be played on those monitors.
With the PS3, you are legally able to upgrade your harddrive if you wish. Microsoft, does not make this able but instead offer you to buy a 120gb hdd for $180.00. That's not 'choice' as MS is always making big noise about 'choice'.
Japan has always been a 'copycat' country, and they copy things and make it better. =\ Don't they say that imitation is the best form of flattery? lol. PSH will supposedly be released by the end of this year (In beta phase now) and you can kind of call it WOW vs. MS LIVE.
Personally I think Sony is sandbagging the crap out of the PS3. At first that makes me mad, but I guess it's their strategy for the life of the PS3. They say the PS3 will last 10 years (We'll see about that lol). No current game are fully taking advantage of the cell processors at the moment. FFIII, they say are one of the games that will use about 3 of the cell processors. (correct me if I'm wrong).
IMHO the one who's really doing the 'ripping off' is good ol' Billy Gates. lol
One example is through MS LIVE. A lot of game developers wanted to give add-ons at no charge, but Microsoft said NO! I gave MS so much $$$ through the Marketplace lol.
Another example is GHII. You have to pay something like 500 MS points to get like 3 out of all the original GH tracks that were free in the PS2. Sure they could say if you want those songs, go play on PS2, but at the least, they should have charged 500 MS points for ALL the original PS2 GH tracks instead of 500 pts for just 3 songs lol.
Microsoft also should have well been able to include HDMI 1.3 (which most HDTV's include) on their new top of the line Elite.
Check out this article:
X360 Elite lacks PCM audio
Also what about the 120gb hdd? Those who don't have an Elite, if they want to up their HDD, their only choice (legally) is to opt for the 120gb hdd for $180.00. Now, you and I both know that's a ridiculous price for an HDD, even for a notebook HDD.
There were allegations against MS for overcharging, and MS's response was lame saying that that's the same price as if you would have purchased an external HDD of the same size. Last time I checked, for the price of MS's 120gb hdd, I could purchase instead a 500gb external hdd for 179.00. But even though, I wouldn't be able to use it on my 360 lol.
Then there's the Banhammer MS threw down on a lot of folks in the 360 modding community. If MS truly wanted to stop the piracy, then they would have banned your LIVE account as well as the console ID. Instead they just banned the console that was modded. So now MS just forced you another 'choice' lol. Since your account hasn't been banned, just the console, you now have the choice to purchase another 360!
Meanwhile those who modded their box to get free games instead of backing up their legit titles, will still be pirating games to play on their banned consoles. They just won't be able to play on LIVE. Good way to stop piracy eh? Piracy my ass lol. Banning the modder's console and not the account, thus forcing the banned console owner to buy a new console (MS was logging since last fall for those who played illegal backups), was just a business approach to try to cash in on more sales.
Being that MS able to identify if the game you are playing on your 360 was original or not, logging all the people playing illegal backups since last year fall, and waiting until the release of the CRACKDOWN/HALO 3 beta to release the banahammer with NO warning (they could have said: Play one more backup and you're banned!) is IMHO a pretty fu*ked up way to up their sales some more.
I love both companies to death, but really I think MS is the one ripping us off.
But then again I'll still be playing 360 games, I'll still be playing/watching PS3 games/movies, and I'll still be giving $$$ to both MS and Sony LOL, but I guess my point really is that we are lucky that we get to bitch like this on forums. If there was only one company who made a video game console, we'd all be fu*ked if that company was lame lol.
I guess we're lucky to have 'choice' eh?
Sorry for the long post >.<