PlayStation 3 vs Xbox 360

Diffen › Technology › Consumer Electronics

Playstation 3 comes with a built-in Blu-Ray player that provides HD output with high-quality sound. Xbox 360 is known for its community experience and offers a friendlier environment for Windows, as it is tightly integrated with other Microsoft applications. Both are 7th generation gaming consoles and offer online gaming services, Play Station Network (PSN) and Xbox Live. While the PSN Network has no monthly fee for playing games online, Xbox Live has a subscription with flexible pricing options.

Comparison chart

PlayStation 3 versus Xbox 360 comparison chart
	PlayStation 3	Xbox 360
	current rating is 4.03/5 1 2 3 4 5 (3285 ratings)	current rating is 3.94/5 1 2 3 4 5 (3368 ratings)

Main Attributes:	-----------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------
Manufacturer and owner	Sony	Microsoft
Type	7th generation console	7th generation console
Product Family	PlayStation	Xbox
Release	November 2006 - March 2007	November 2005 - December 2005
Units sold worldwide	~87.40 million units	~84.00 million units
Price	Launch: 500$ - 20GB; 600$ - 60GB Current: 275$ - 20GB; 330$ - 60GB	Launch: 299$ - Core; 399$ - 20GB Current: 199$ - 4GB; 299$ - 4GB + Kinect; 299$ - 250GB; 419$ - 250GB + Kinect
Predecessor	PlayStation 2	Xbox (Original)
Successor	PlayStation 4	Xbox One
Media Attributes:	-----------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------
Exclusives	Metal Gear Solid 4, God of War Series, Uncharted Series, and more.	Gears of War 3, Motosport 4, Halo Combat, and more
Media	DVD, CD, Blu-ray, downloads	DVD, CD, Downloads
Best-selling games	GTA V (30M); Gran Turismo 5 (12M); The Last of Us (7M)	Kinect Adventures (24M); GTA V (23M); COD: Modern Warfare 3 (15M)
Online Services	PlayStation Network for multiplayer support, downloadable movies and game, online surfing, and meeting other players.	Xbox Live for multiplayer support, downloadable movies, music, and games, online surfing, and meeting other players.
Controllers	Supports 7 wireless and/ or wired controllers without removable batteries	up to 4 wireless and/ or wired controllers
Backwards compatibility	PSONE + PS2	Partially with Xbox (Original)
Specifications:	-----------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------
CPU	Cell Processor @ 3.23 GHz (8 Cores)	3.2 GHz PowerPC Tri-Core Xenon
Graphics	Nvidia RSX graphics processor, with 25g MB XDR main memory and 256 GDDR3 video memory.	ATI Xenos with 10 MB embedded eDRAM and 512 MB DDR3 video RAM.
Memory (RAM)	256 MB	512 MB
Video memory bandwidth	22.4 GBps	21.6 GBps to system RAM; 256 GBps to eDRAM
Video Resolutions	480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p (will down sample to standard definition)	720p, 1080i, 1080p (will down sample to standard definition)
Connectivity	4 x USB 2.0, Ethernet, Built-in Wifi	5 x USB 2.0, IR port, Ethernet, Wifi 802.11a/b/g
Other	-----------------------------------------------	-----------------------------------------------
Available	160 GB, 320 GB	4 GB, 250 GB
Misc	External HDD Support; Wireless Networking; Motion Sensing; Wi-Fi; DRM	External HDD Support; Wireless Networking; Motion Sensing; Wi-Fi (S Model); DRM

History and Development

The PS3 was first announced at the E3 gaming conference in 2005. The initial prototype revealed at the time had two HDMI ports, three Ethernet ports and six USB ports; these were cut to one HDMI port, one Ethernet port and four USB ports when the system was shown again at E3 in 2006. It was initially released with two hardware configurations: a 20 GB model at $499 and a 60 GB model at $599. Although originally given a worldwide release date in November 2006, its release in Europe was pushed back until March 2007.

Microsoft began to develop the Xbox 360 in 2003. They held an event for 400 developers to recruit support for the system, and hired Peter Moore, the former president of Sega, to work on the project. In August 2003, ATI joined the development team to produce the console’s graphic processing unit. The following month, IBM signed on to develop a triple-core CPU. The console was in development for two and a half years and was released in the United States and Canada on 22nd November 2005. It was released in Europe on December 2nd and Japan on December 10th. In the first year after release, it was launched in 36 countries.

Versions

The PS3 has been released in several different versions, with varying amounts of hard disk space. The 20 GB model, 40 GB model, 60 GB and 80 GB model are no longer sold. Buyers can now choose between a 160 GB system and a 320 GB system. There are no differences except for the amount of hard disk available.

The Xbox is currently available in four different configurations: the Xbox 360 4GB console, the Xbox 360 4GB with Kinect, the Xbox 360 250GB console, and the Xbox 360 250GB console with Kinect. There are no differences except for the amount of hard disk available and whether or not it includes the motion control system Kinect.

Update

The 8th generation consoles, PS4 and Xbox One were released in 2013.

Hardware

Processing Power

The Playstation 3’s CPU is a Sony, Toshiba, IBM-designed Cell microprocessor, with one 3.2 GHz PowerPC-based Power Processing Element and eight Synergistic Processing Elements, the last of which is disabled to improve chip yield. Only six of the seven are accessible to developers; the seventh is used by the operating system.

The Xbox 360 uses the triple-core IBM-designed Xenon as its CPU, and has three 3.2 GHz core processors.

Graphics

The PS3 uses an NVIDIA RSX “Reality Synthesizer,” which outputs resolutions from 480i SD up to 1080i HD.

The Xbox 360 uses ATI Xenos for its graphics processing, which has 10 MG of eDRAM.

Memory

The PS3 has 256 mb of XDR DRAM main memory and 256 mb of GDDR3 video memory.

The Xbox360 has 512 mb of memory.

Accessories

Accessories for the PS3 include wireless controllers, the Playstation Eye camera, headsets and a motion controller named Playstation Move.

Accessories for the Xbox 360 include a webcam, headsets for chatting, dance mats and Gamercize for exercise, and its motion-control system, Kinect.

Reliability

The PS3 has a two-year failure rate of 10%.

The Xbox 360 has a two-year failure rate of 23.7%.

Online

The PS3 connects to the Internet for free through the Playstation Network using the homeowner’s high speed internet account. Its features include PlayStation Plus, a subscription service that gives early access to game betas, demos and premium downloadable content, the PlayStation Store, where players can buy downloadable content, and online gaming with other players. PlayStation Plus costs $49.99 a year, $17.99 for three months, or $9.99 a month. The Network has over 90 million registered users.

The Xbox 360 uses Xbox Live, an online gaming service that is available both free and for a subscription. It allows users to join message boards and access the Marketplace to download purchased or promotional content. The subscription service also allows multiplayer gaming and costs $60 per year for an individual or $99.99 for a family of four (The family pack has been discontinued as of 3/6/2013, and all existing family memberships will be converted to individual Xbox Live Gold memberships). Users can also download classic games from the Xbox Live Arcade. Xbox Live has over 40 million users, and players can connect using their high speed cable or DSL internet connection.

Games

Bestsellers

Bestselling games for the PS3 include Grand Turismo 5 (7.43 million copies), God of War III (5.2 million), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (4.8 million), Uncharted 3 (3.8 million), Uncharted 2 (3.8 million), MotorStorm (3.31 million), Call of Duty: Black Ops (3.27 units), Metal Gear Solid 4 (3 million) and LittleBigPlanet (3 million), Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Bestselling games for the Xbox 360 include Kinect Adventures (18 million copies), Call of Duty: Black Ops (12 million), Halo 3 (8.10 million), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (7.48 million), Gears of War (5 million), Gears of War 2 (5 million), Halo: Reach (5 million), Grand Theft Auto IV (4.35 million) and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (4.22 million).

Exclusives

Metal Gear Solid 4, InFamous 1&2, God of War 3, LittleBigPlanet and Uncharted 2 are some of the top games exclusively available on PS3. Gears of War 3, Halo Combat and Forza Motorsport 4 are some of the top games exclusively available on Xbox 360.

Recent Introductions

The new games on Xbox 360 are Call of Duty: Ghosts, Grand Theft Auto V, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4. Xbox 360 also has Minecraft.

Units Sold

In January, 2013, IDC reported that Sony had overtaken Microsoft in terms of the total units sold.

The Japanese company has now sold about 77 million PS3 consoles worldwide, versus 76 million Xbox 360 consoles sold by Microsoft. The PS3 has pulled ahead despite being on the market for a shorter time - it went on sale in late 2006, about a year after the Xbox 360.

Price

PS3:

12 GB system is available for $199.99
250 GB system is available from $249.99 and up (with bundle).
500 GB system is available from $269.99.

XBOX 360:

4 GB console from $199.99 and up (with bundle or subscription).
4 GB console with Kinect from $299.99.
250 GB console from $299.99.
250 GB console with Kinect from $419.99.

Current prices for the consoles, games, bundles and accessories are available on Amazon.com.

References

About the Author

Nick Jasuja has over 15 years of technology industry experience, including at Amazon in Seattle. He is an expert at building websites, developing software programs in PHP and JavaScript, maintaining MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, and running Linux servers for serving high-traffic websites. He has a bachelor's degree in Computer Science & Engineering.