As an American I am obligated to say Xbox 360 while sipping on a Mountain Dew on top of a pile of guns and NASCAR paraphernalia.

That said, I was given a hand me down 360 late in the gen (late 2011) and got a PS3 after it was largely put to pasture (2015). In many, many ways the 360 had the superior versions of multiplats depending on what you wanted (exception being later Sony prioritized VSync in games, also Blu Rays were better than DVDs as long as installing was an option) as well as a strong roster of exclusive titles for the first four or so years (say what you will of the effects it had in killing Unreal but Gears was big for a pretty good reason: it was fantastic). I tended to prefer PS3 before I owned either in concept but owning both it is hard to say. When I had both systems hooked up to a display still the 360 was a better place for fighting games, shooters of any kind, and played EDF 2017. However, one thing I have not missed is that the 360 is never not a loud system, even when the thing was new it was loud and I only got second hand units. They are large (barring the very last model, which then introduces storage problems), a bit on the eye sore side, and develop some quirks easily (the disc tray getting stuck is the chief one I've fought).

The PS3 also can get loud in certain games and I wish that I could retire it to largely being a PS1 player but Sony has no real back compat solution at this time. That said, Blu Rays were great then and are great now, many better exclusives came after the half way mark, and with the right fat model you had a massive wealth of games available to you (not me, my fat has trouble with around half of my PS2 library right now).

At the time I played largely on either my Wii/DS or on PC mostly playing either older games or demos of newer titles (Call of Duty 4 and Crysis are very fond memories to me as demos) but had access to a 360 on occasion when my cousin came to town. My uncle had a PS3 (which I have now) but I did not use it since I never used one until 2014 when my other uncle let me use his. Some games I thought would be great turned out not to be so great (Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, Killzone 2 are all titles I definitively do not like) whereas at least on 360 while Halo 3 was always a bit of a dud for me playing it splitscreen along with Gears of War was fun.

If you were to ask me which one you should get now (kind of an odd idea) then I would ask why are you getting it? If you want to play popular games from the era then get an Xbox of any strip, either One or Series X, and buy titles on that. Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty as well as 360 Halo and Gears are on there and they are just in some cases improved and you get solid original Xbox titles like unreal Championship 2. If you want unique games from the era that may not have been super popular then for Xbox you can play some of those on back compat (painful exceptions for Chrome Hounds, Project Silpheed, Soul Calibur IV). However, there are some games for PS3 that are still stuck there that are not easily gotten anywhere else (I still really like Yakuza Dead Souls, and then there are titles like Warriors Legends of Troy, Tales of Xillia, Resistance series, Metal Gear Solid 4).

So, if we put ourselves back in the time period I would say flip a coin and get whichever one as you will be able to get the other one cheap as dirt with cheap as dirt games between 2012 and 2019... assuming you have access to a time traveler who informs you of that. At this time I slightly edge it toward a PS3.

Small PS: the 360 controller is still a really good design whereas the PS3's Sixaxis was debatably a downgrade from Dualshock 2 even back then.

...

Elon stuck me in some shiny red car and left me near mars, but mars isn't one of the choices one can choose.

The PS3 for one reason: no paid online.

PS3 was the last console where you owned your online games as you didn't need to rent every month to a subscription service just to use basic features like playing online or backup your saves, and many games had LAN support.

That is a good point although PC will then say online is still free for PC.

It is a shame that 360 made tons of money with their paid online and gamers didnt raise a fuss about it. If people complained and refused to buy the subscription, Sony would have not see it become successful and start charging with the PS4.

Luckily I mostly play single player games but given the fact that free live service games can be played without the paid online subscription (fortnite, Genshin impact), pretty sure Sony and Microsoft can offer online features for free.

I was a PC guy then, as I was before and am now, but if you made me pick one for a desert island I'd say the 360. It has more Western RPGs and shooters, which are mostly what I play.

All of you are missing the point: Both are equally worthless because they support neither 8K resolution nor homemade graphics cards.

I've been a PS guy since the first Playstation, which I now justify as the superior console due to its exclusives.

I'm team PS4.
But only, because I am not ready yet, to join team PS5.

The PS3 was not backward compatible and only the first PS3 actually had PS2 hardware inside which was able to allow a high backward compatibility. The other models was using a software emulation which was simply crap, so the backward compatibility has been stopped on any model except the very first one.

The PS2 used a full PS1 chipset on every single console, so it had near full backward compatibility. No wonder... the PS2 was the most successful console ever, able to support PS1 and PS2 with the biggest unique game-archive in console history... especially for RPG lovers. I was happy i was able to experience "this old console time using a PS2 and even PS1..." Those old days, it will never come back i feel. Because the shape got shifted... toward a "launcher-bound" and "PC-like" environment, this is simply the stuff gamers now mainly enjoy.

PS3 was not so good anymore... the XBox 360 was my favorite with PS3 slowly catching up and only barely able to become "on par" with the Xbox360. This is the only time ever MS was able to beat or become on par with Sony... and the only time ever MS had a good gaming console with good unique games.

However... PS3 was not the worst, the PS4 was the worst console ever... now moving away from "console like behavior" and now almost a true fake PC... in the sense of a new Wii (hyped and underpowered) but in the shape of a Sony console. Totally under powered, so Sony even had in mind to release a PRO model with finally more performance. However... i did not get me one because "i was already out"... i stopped playing for countless of years and after the big break... i was arriving on PC and some years after on PS5, which was finally a big step forward and way better than the PS4... actually even better than the PS3 and so it is my third "best" Sony console now, after PS2, PS1... then PS5. The lowest amount of Sony console games i ever had was clearly on the PS4, a bit more than two dozens... and many of them i got now as a way improved PS5 remake and the PS5 is fully backward compatible, so nothing missed at all.

However, Nintendo i was never interested in. They had gone to their demise long ago, for me. Their best console ever was the SNES and the second best console was the Game Cube (but unfortunately very few great games). All the other consoles i barely had any interest for. Dreamcast got a special place in my heart with a few special and unique games...

The PS5 somehow managed to stay a console while "moving toward the PC and account bound" direction with many good titles, some of them unique but not many anymore... and sufficiently powered as a hardware, simply like a compact PC with comparable gameplay features. To me it is now a "backup PC. in order to avoid Steam for the games missing on GoG", however... i enjoy collecting BD discs... or simply DRM free installers which is for many years my main source of games.

But to the actually question: Xbox360 and PS3, at a later stage, was pretty much "on par"... while for any other console... MS was out to me. I actually got the first Xbox and the second Xbox360 but not any other MS console anymore, it was simply not good enough anymore. The PS4 was only "barely" good enough.. and everything this "PC like console" was doing is now being done way better by the PS5.

Besides, the XboxSX is just a "small PC" with a subscription based gaming model... nothing else. It is probably not even worth it to consider it a "console" and no secret in my country the PS5 (and the Switch) is by far with biggest demand. The Xbox SS is the smallest PC without even a disc option anymore... and simply some "streaming machine for games and perhaps even movies", not a console at all. It is basically the epiphany of a "account bound mini PC" we ever experienced so far... worse than Steam Deck. Well... simply the gamers as a mass was asking for, i guess... NOT ME and i am not part of the mass. Clearly the worst thing ever created but only barely worse than the XboxOne.

Nowadays the MS things i still enjoy are Win10 OS and Xbox360 for PC gamepad... nothing else.

Perhaps in the near future we may only see Sony and Nintendo prevail, while Sony stands mainly for "stationary" and Nintendo for "portable". All the other stuff will be on PC and mainly or partially (GoG) account bound. This seems to be the foreseeable future.

Sure, PC and account bound is now the big "hype train", but no one knows if this is truly long term... it may "wear out" over time. Music CDs was for a long time a big hype too, after this MP3 and MP3 players... and nowadays... the good old phonograph record had a renaissance...

Besides, there is no reason to think "Sonys Playstation" may be over in any foreseeable future because according to the current market infos the PS5 is the most profitable console ever created by Sony, so it seems "to work". However... there will not be many competition anymore, as the gamers simply see no need for it... not even me on the console market because i simply need no more than 1 console anymore. https://www.gamesradar.com/games/ps5-is-sonys-most-profitable-console-gen-ever-after-just-3-years-beating-ps4-by-over-dollar36-billion-in-sales/

You're not missing much at all. If you're a PC gamer, switch would be the only console offering something to you. One, it feels like a console, not just a PC box. Two. You can emulate the games easily to make it more accessible.

I emulate and have been playing on my Switch a lot recently since I have been having shoulder issues. Really hate what Sony and MS did to consoles.

Switch feels like some minor Steam Deck or other handheld if you ask me... so the same could be said to Switch but not vs. PC, vs. handheld instead.

I think it comes down to marketing and the name "Nintendo" is simply a unwavering proof of "it is good for my family and my little portable gaming"; near immovable in this statement. Steam... we all know the deal... linked to PC or maybe even better than PC because a PC without Steam is not a PC, at least this is "the message". Most people may not even know the words heritage from water anymore, so a big marketing success.

GoG... well GoG... difficult to say, the statement is not bad but it need way more marketing and the roots should always be true.

Playstation... i guess it is in the heads of most people... its stationary console approach of games that hopefully works "out of the box" or... "marketplace", although... Steam is now having the almost same "message" but with a generally complicated platform because not "standardized" so the games optimization can become tricky and it rarely is "out of the marketplace"... a lot of issues, patching and tuning needed... which is of course the same on GoG with some different benefits.

To me, surely, console makes sense... as it is usually really "the most out of the box or the most out of the marketplace you may be able to get" which is the basic "idea of console". It is not the idea to have a hardware that is totally different than any PC... but of course, i would appreciate a very own hardware, comparable to the very old days. This is nowadays simply not realistic anymore, because it would create a big brake wedge on porting it over to PC, or vice versa... which is in todays age of a very high PC focus... and many ports, not the best idea anymore.

Besides, nope, not even Nintendo is that far away from "well known PC hardware" anymore. but they mostly use portable hardware which is mainly used on smartphones or laptops for example... because of their "portable approach". Yes, you can dock it to a big TV... this is not any different of the capabilities of many other portable devices.

The "module"? This is nothing more than a "usual" SD card... a small version of flash storage usually used almost eveywhere on the portable market. The life expectancy is not big anymore... this is not a SNES module who can last almost forever... it is kinda a weak 08/15 hardware from todays short lived PC market. Inside a smartphone this "flash card" is not even fast enough, so, directly on the PCB there are true SSD chips soldered, and the SD card may be used as an upgrade but it never got SSD performance on any modern smartphone.

Actually the BD disc is more unique than this because it is nowadays only used for movies and console games... with some freaks backing up things... but in general rarely used. Even movies are mainly streamed now... so the BD is actually pretty unique and i hope it can survive.

The "old glory" of Japan as been over since the millennium and almost no "own research" has been made since that time in the general hardware market; instead they use well known hardware and are simply trying to make a own design using it.. and yes, even Nintendo.

I guess China is already more innovative now in the hardware research... and they have to because of the actions done to them.

I had the PS3, due to past ownership of PS1 and PS2 consoles.

As a fan of fighting games, prefer the d-pad of PS3 over its X360. I figured that Japanese devs will more likely support the PlayStation console. The fighting genre consist of mostly Japanese devs, so the PS3 seemed like a safer option at the time, even though most of them ended up being on the X360 as well.

While it's not the case for the later generation consoles, the PS3's online service was free. That was boon for a good portion of its lifecycle when I didn't have a job.

Finally, the online store also has modest selection of PS1 and PS2 games. While I prefer physical copies, they become scarce over the years and now ridiculously expensive. My PS1 stopped functioning a long time ago, so this serves as alternative when the original consoles no longer work.

I own a Switch since its release.

Hmm interesting thread.

I bought a used PS3 in 2021, and since then I kept buying used games for it up until late 2023 or early 2024, I guess that makes me Team PS3.

My first interaction with the console must be yeaaaaars back when there was a kiosk with the console running MotorStorm. I was a kid and was blown away by the raw racing experience and the visuals. I now own the original MotorStorm and Pacific Rift but not Apocalypse.

And for a while, the PS3 was pretty much the console I had in mind to play a couple of specific games that didn't come over to everyone's PC: Sonic 06, Sonic Unleashed and the original Hyperdimension Neptune (I only played the first two seriously and to completion).

So when I bought it used, you'd think I'd be all over the exclusives. I have a couple of exclusives, the Uncharted trilogy, the MotorStorms above, some inFAMOUS, Killzone, Lair, Heavy Rain, Heavenly Sword, these kinds of weird experimental exclusives from the early era, but surprisingly my library has more third party, cross platform games: Tomb Raider, Need for Speed, Batman Arkham, Burnout Paradise, Grand Theft Auto, Sleeping Dogs... It's like I want games regardless of the answer to "can I buy them on PC?". That and buying used games... a concept unheard of on PC these days!

Incidentally, the PS3 was how I got into Skyrim, eventually leading up to me spending about 25 hours on the PC version of Oblivion as of now.

My console is not a backwards compatible one, but 1) I already have a slim PS2 modded with OpenPS2Loader, and 2) The PS3 has CFW anyway, so I could make use of the software-based PS2 emulation all PS3 consoles have. Oh, and the thing plays PS1 games, hell, half the games don't work but it can run some PSP games. Not to mention retro emulation.

I'd like to give the Xbox 360 a chance but from a distance, I don't know what I'd gain apart from shooters like Halo, heh.