sangreal said:
True, but last gen it was Sony with the expensive, low capacity, proprietary storage while the xbox didn't need any extra storage. You could even use a usb drive if you shelled out the $5 for the memorycard->usb adapter. It doesn't seem to have helped Microsoft out very much.
Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that most people are going to buy one system or another because of their peripherals. Most people buy game systems for specific games.
I'm just saying for smart people when they factor the cost of one system vs. the other have to consider this. When a PS3 comes out you may not have to buy any memory at all for it and with the PS3 exclusively using all open standard memory formats the price for storage is always going to be much lower while the capacities will always be higher.
Xbox 360 owners may feel really shafted over the course of this generation or at least frustrated by MS's closed standards. I'm just speculating but if you can go ahead and slap an off the shelf 2.5" HDD into your PS3 the way you could with the PS2 HDD then you could be talking about a much more massive amount of storage for the PS3 for the same price as 20GB of storage on XB360.
There are 2 major reasons for MS not to use open standards regarding memory. 1.) They can make a lot more money this way. 2.) They can claim better security against piracy. I don't think either of these reasons satisfy consumers looking to make the XB360 or PS3 their main multimedia hub.
I gotta say in light of these unfair non-competitive closed market memory prices it's a real shame you can't just use a networked PC or USB device as your memory storage. I'd be willing to sacrafice a little bandwidth and speed to not have to pay $100 for 20GBs.