ps3 vs x360 Megathread

[Danieru-Emanyueru]

When the PlayStation 3 (PS3) and the Xbox 360 launched in the 2000s, they sparked one of the greatest console rivalries in video game history. Both consoles had their strengths and weaknesses often making the decision for players a matter of personal preference. The PS3 boasted a free online service and a built-in Blu-ray drive, while the Xbox 360 boasted Xbox Live online gaming and a more sophisticated controller.

CPU: Complex Cell processor vs. developer-friendly PowerPC

• PS3 (Cell processor):
  • Architecture: The Cell processor, developed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, consisting of a PowerPC-based core (PPE) and eight Synergistic Processing Units (SPEs).
  • Performance: Six of the eight SPEs were available to the developers. In theory, the Cell processor offered more performance for certain calculations.
  • Disadvantage: The parallel architecture, new to consoles, was extremely complex and difficult to program for developers. As a result, the performance advantages could often not be fully exploited.
• Xbox 360 (Xenon processor):
  • Architecture: A three-core PowerPC processor from IBM that was easier to program.
  • Advantage: The simpler architecture meant that many multiplatform games on the Xbox 360 had better performance, such as more stable frame rates, especially in the early years of the console generation.

GPU: Proprietary Xenos vs. G70-based RSX

• PS3 (Nvidia RSX "Reality Synthesizer"):
  • Architecture: Based on the G70 architecture of Nvidia's GeForce 7 series.
  • Graphics performance: The RSX was technically weaker than the Xenos GPU of the Xbox 360 .
• Xbox 360 (ATI Xenos):
  • Architecture: A custom-built GPU developed by ATI.
  • Advantage: The Xenos GPU had a unified shader architecture and 10 MB of eDRAM, which improved anti-aliasing and alpha blending performance without significant performance loss.

Memory (RAM): Shared vs. Separate

• PS3: 512 MB geteilter Speicher, aufgeteilt in 256 MB XDR-Hauptspeicher und 256 MB GDDR3-Videospeicher.
• Xbox 360: 512 MB GDDR3-Arbeitsspeicher, der sowohl vom CPU als auch vom GPU gemeinsam genutzt wurde (Unified Memory Architecture).

Optical drives: Blu-ray vs. DVD

• PS3 : A built-in Blu-ray drive. This offered significantly higher storage capacity of up to 50 GB per dual-layer disc compared to the Xbox 360 's DVD . Blu-rays allowed for the storage of games and high-definition movies.
• Xbox 360: A DVD drive with a storage capacity of 8.5 GB per dual-layer disc. The optional HD DVD drive failed to gain traction. The lower storage capacity forced some developers to distribute games across multiple DVDs.

Online services: Free vs. paid

• PS3 (PlayStation Network – PSN): Free online multiplayer. However, the service suffered from stability issues in its early years and was less mature than its competitors.
• Xbox 360 (Xbox Live) : Paid subscription service for online multiplayer. Xbox Live offered a more stable and feature-rich service that was considered the industry standard.

Other technical aspects

• Controller: The wireless Xbox 360 controller was often praised for its ergonomics. The PS3 controller, the DualShock 3 , was an evolution of the DualShock design and featured motion sensing, but was often considered less comfortable by comparison .
• Reliability: Early Xbox 360 models were less reliable due to the high failure rate of the infamous "Red Ring of Death." Later hardware revisions significantly improved stability. The PS3 was generally more reliable.
• Backward compatibility: The first PS3 models were compatible with PS2 games, but this feature was later removed. The Xbox 360 offered limited software emulation for some original Xbox games.

 

[Tonberry]

Xbox 360 all the way, back then. The only real leg-up I can think of that PS3 had for me was Demon's Souls. And free online.
Nowadays, I'm not as sure.

 

[PhaseJump]

360 was the best. PS3 was more expensive, and the games had worse performance across the board.

I mean, really. Think back to the sixaxis bullshit marketing at launch, they were gaslighting customers implying that we shouldn't really want or need dual shock.

 

[ZEGA ZONIC]

PS3. Free multiplayer, great exclusive games, Blu-ray & storing music & videos whenever you want to.

 

[bjork]

Launch 60GB PS3, otherwise 360

 

[Dr.Kisaragi]

Well I more of ps3 because of Jrpgs like All Tales games, Ni no Kuni, Valkyria Chronicles, White Knight Witch and the Hundred knight, Folkre, Legend of Heroes Cold Steel Nier

 

[Turbo Kid]

PS3. Trophies were cooler than achievements. The PS3 looked better. PS3 had a better disc format. It had more Japanese game support. It had a better controller. And It had better exclusives. It had a far better UI which some people still copy now on things like RetroArch. The differences in third party games that Digital Foundry made such a fuss over were usually minor things that only nerds living in their mom's basement cared about.

The only real problem was the annoying copy protection on save files for some games. Funny enough, it's only gotten worse since the PS5 doesn't let you back up saves on ANY game.

 

[bjork]

Trophies were cooler than achievements.

let's not talk crazy now

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

I think 360 takes it for me. It was more affordable, games ran way smoother (As a kid who was really getting into fighting games at the time as well, 360 was necessary) and even though the online cost money, to me it felt better for some reason. Maybe it was the group chat/party system they had, but PS3's equivalent to that was really awkward to use.

I'll say that I thought PS3 had a better UI though and I'd probably agree it ended up having better exclusives overall, especially as someone who's a big fan of Japanese games, you kind of needed a PS3 (360 did have Japanese games too, and I own pretty much all the ones that got released in Europe, but unfortunately a lot of the best ones were Japan exclusive).

 

[Turbo Kid]

let's not talk crazy now

Trophies:

Achievements:

Like, how do you even represent an "achievement"? Trophies just conceptually work better. I prefer seeing little trophy icons (including the Platinum) to seeing a bunch of meaningless numbers on my gamer profile

Also, Microsoft eventually made a mockery of the whole system giving out achievements for stupid stuff like buying an Xbox on day 1 and they even were adding time limited achievements on their games for a while in the form of "challenges" in order to try and force people to buy games upon release. The whole achievement system just became a joke over time

I also hate how the 360 really tried pushing the always online thing. Like I don't think you could even get achievements if you were offline.

 

[bjork]

It's all meaningless numbers, you know?

 

[Turbo Kid]

The irony of some games running better on the Xbox is that the PS3 was a more powerful system, but developers were too lazy to learn how to program for it properly. In theory, every third party game should have been better on the PS3

 

[PhaseJump]

Achievements were in every game. PS3 had to add them later, like rumble in the controllers, because Sony were behind the competition. They eventually removed back compat. Their menu was bloated. You couldn't even access the PSN store on the console itself without it slowing down and completely crashing near the end of it.

Talk of "lazy developers" is pure ignorance. Xbox had better tools.

PS3 was a fucking dud. Sony reigned in it's hubris and made the best of it, but not until after butchering and abandoning the PS Vita's viability.

 

[Metroid_Hybrid]

My mind ponders about a parallel universe where the original Halo never came out, thus allowing Xbox to slowly die off ala the Atari Jaguar..

I don't know if you kids realize (or old-heads: remember), that the original Xbox was slowly dying before Master Chief came and singlehandedly saved Xbox from the ash-heap of history...

 

[Scotty]

3 6 0.

(Never had a PS3 growing up.)

 

[Turbo Kid]

Bloated? Really? I never thought so

Xbox UI always looked like a storefront. Super tacky

This right here is elegance and organization

PS3 had raw power. It didn't need "tools". Devs just didn't know how to use it

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

The irony of some games running better on the Xbox is that the PS3 was a more powerful system, but developers were too lazy to learn how to program for it properly. In theory, every third party game should have been better on the PS3

Probably more a case of Sony hardware being notoriously difficult to develop for (Something developers have complained about since the PS1 days) rather than lazy programmers. There's a reason people like Kamiya and Itagaki preferred developing for the 360 (Look at the PS3 version of Bayonetta. It was actually insane that got released in that state).

 

[PhaseJump]

My mind ponders about a parallel universe where the original Halo never came out, thus allowing Xbox to slowly die off ala the Atari Jaguar..

I don't know if you kids realize (or old-heads: remember), that the original Xbox was slowly dying before Master Chief came and singlehandedly saved Xbox from the ash-heap of history...

Xbox wasn't dying pre-Halo. It was the 1000 pound monster on the horizon, set to disrupt everything and suck up all the oxygen from Sega.

 

[Turbo Kid]

Nobody I knew even knew that Xbox existed before Halo came into existence and for a long time master chief carried the brand. The only other thing that maybe came close was Gears of War. That's another thing I didn't like about Xbox, too much focus on shooters and multiplayer gaming. It was very "Western". They've always been that way. It's the brand. Sony always had more to offer fans of Japanese content.

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

I don't know if you kids realize (or old-heads: remember), that the original Xbox was slowly dying before Master Chief came and singlehandedly saved Xbox from the ash-heap of history...

This is such a blatant lie. The first Halo was a launch title for the console, you aren't fooling anyone lol.

 

[nobitakun]

Memory (RAM): Shared vs. Separate

• PS3: 512 MB geteilter Speicher, aufgeteilt in 256 MB XDR-Hauptspeicher und 256 MB GDDR3-Videospeicher.
• Xbox 360: 512 MB GDDR3-Arbeitsspeicher, der sowohl vom CPU als auch vom GPU gemeinsam genutzt wurde (Unified Memory Architecture).

You forgot to translate this part from the german site.

Why to choose one or the other? I believe people tend to choose one plataform over the other when they have to decide to get one or the other, but when money is not a problem you end having both, and specially in this generation. I first bought 360 because until 2010, PS3 was basically losing the war, but after 2010 they were releasing many jrpg's and other exclusive games that made me get it. I was still getting the multi games for 360, because most of the time they were the superior version, but almost at the end of PS3's life they were releasing many japanese games that didn't for 360. It was the most intense and exciting generation :)

 

[Turbo Kid]

Halo was a launch title? My memory must be faulty. Well be that as it may everyone I knew only had the system for that one game and didn't care about anything else on it.

 

[Metroid_Hybrid]

Probably more a case of Sony hardware being notoriously difficult to develop for (Something developers have complained about since the PS1 days) rather than lazy programmers. There's a reason people like Kamiya and Itagaki preferred developing for the 360 (Look at the PS3 version of Bayonetta. It was actually insane that got released in that state).

While on one hand, the PS3's Cell Processor architecture was notably harder to develop for, so was the PS2's Emotion Engine, and developers were continuously finding new ways to squeeze more & more power out of it.
The 360, on the other hand, was basically just a suped-up PC, and thus had SUPER familiar programming languages right out of the gate. That, AND the fact that Microsoft was pumping TONS of money into pulling developer away from their competition..

 

[PhaseJump]

Nobody I knew even knew that Xbox existed before Halo came into existence and for a long time master chief carried the brand. The only other thing that maybe came close was Gears of War. That's another thing I didn't like about Xbox, too much focus on shooters and multiplayer gaming. It was very "Western". They've always been that way. It's the brand. Sony always had more to offer fans of Japanese content.

Halo was a launch title, originally being built by Bungie for Apple.

Xbox was in the magazines and rumour mill while Dreamcast was on the market and failing, Microsoft were throwing money around and they bought Bungie, along with a bunch of other stuff, Japanese games included. Level 5 took their money and failed to deliver TFLO.

OG Xbox had PC gamers interested, and it ported those style of games to consoles before anybody.

Crimson Skies, Fable, Morrowind, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Arx Fatalis. etc.

 

[Metroid_Hybrid]

Xbox wasn't dying pre-Halo. It was the 1000 pound monster on the horizon, set to disrupt everything and suck up all the oxygen from Sega.

Name another game ANYONE cared about for the first few years of the system..