According to a Digital Spy investigation into the potential costs of consoles, the Xbox 360 is the most expensive, citing electricity costs and a Live subscription as the main factors.

The Xbox 360 is the worst for those hidden costs, although the others aren't exactly innocent either. When you consider this doesn't include what you actually bought it for - the games - it shows that this hobby is a costly thing indeed.
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  • 3
    iLLmatic Sep 14, 08
    This is getting really tired now. No purpose is served at all with these "news" posts. Yes, we all know Live costs money, but not only is electricity a huge reach, I really doubt the 360 uses more power than a PS3.
    • 5
      Shadow of Death Sep 14, 08
      Quite right, I'm getting sick of these sort of articles.

      And yes, I do believe some power consumption study (posted on GG) posted the Ps3 as being a bit worse than the 360, and both being a fair bit higher than the Wii.

      But yeah, I don't have Live Gold because of the costs.....Hopefully they'll eventually drastically reduce the cost, or remove it entirely (to compete with Sony's Free service, as it gets better).
      • 1
        iLLmatic Sep 15, 08
        Yea, I don't use Live because I would have to first get an overpriced wifi adapter, and then the actual service. I used to be on Live, but I was just using 2 month free subscriptions for a while. No way in hell I'm paying $150 just to play games online when I can do it free right now on PS3.
        • 1
          Cdemon Sep 15, 08
          Actually you could get a wireless bridge for like $20....
    • 1
      HisServant77 Sep 15, 08
      I actually liked this one for a change. It seemed to be the most objective comparison.

      Also . . . they list the PS3 as using more power than the 360, where did you read it was the other way around?
    • 2
      A Definite Product Sep 15, 08
      Where did it say that the cost of electricity was more for the 360? The only reason the 360 lost this "hidden" cost analysts was because of the live subscription.
    • 6
      Gamesta100 Sep 15, 08
      Yeah, enough with the crap on things that suck about each console.Only the fanboys give a damn about all these minor issues with each console.

      Just like all those damn game comparisons, again, only fanboys care about which version of a game has VERY slightly "better" graphics.

      If people TRULY liked the console they owned, and/or weren't scared of the competition, they wouldn't need to continuously justify their console choice.

      Enjoy the console/s you own and let others enjoy their console/s in peace.
      • 1
        HisServant77 Sep 15, 08
        Thank you, Gamesta, I agree 100%!
  • 1
    dmf_dynasty Sep 14, 08
    I went out today and bought a live subscription, a new mic, and a wireless adapter for my 2 month old xbox and it definately screwed over my wallet. It's costly, but it's what I have to pay to have a system that my friends have. Damn Sony's bad early marketing decisions.
  • 4
    Lost_Cause Sep 15, 08
    They left out the gas to drive to the store to buy the 360, the time you spend playing it that you could spend working for money, the cost of a gun to commit suicide when your 360 RRODs, the funeral costs of course, and finally the cost of therapy for your grieving family members.

    God it's so expensive.

    Or you could, you know, not do/buy all that stuff. Then it's really cheap. But it's best to assume every single person ever will need 4 controllers, wi-fi, 2 freaking charger sets for some idiotic reason, a keyboard, and 60 years of Live.
    • 0
      HisServant77 Sep 15, 08
      Then you'd have to add that for all the consoles.

      But for the last part, something tells me, did you read the article completely? They fairly added up costs for basic system, the cost for TWO wireless controllers (one for your friend, since the systems have one already), and the yearly cost of electricity and online.

      Then they say at the end, sure you can just get the package as is, and that's that. Overall though, they fairly charged each one the same way.
    • 0
      Final Blade Sep 15, 08
      FYI, this article was more deemed to hardcore gamers and online players. Who play their systems every damn day online with mics and the like. This article pretty much stated the obvious but its pretty much the best objective comparison we've seen to date.
  • 0
    Livewire_19 Sep 15, 08
    I actually spent more money getting my Wii set up than my 20GB 360, although I didn't buy the overpriced WiFi adapter or the play in charge kits, rechargeable AA's are so much cheaper and more practical. also you can find wireless 360 controllers for half the price of a Wii-mote & nun-chuck.

    The article also didn't say if they were using Wii connect 24 when they calculated electricity usage. It also didn't say how long ago they tested power consumption, both the new 360 and PS3 use less electricity than the previous models so that test may now be out of date.
    • 1
      GTA_Fanatic Sep 15, 08
      Yeah, Wii-motes are overpriced and hard to find.
  • 1
    aphex Sep 15, 08
    For the $50 or so for Live, I'd say it's worth it. There's very few times it's not working and there's new content on it continuously. You get your money's worth with Live.
  • 3
    A Definite Product Sep 15, 08
    Where are the "value for money spent" articles?
    • 0
      dmf_dynasty Sep 15, 08
      Yeah, like the ones where they mention that the PS3 has free online gaming and a cheap blu ray player? That would be nice.
  • 2
    Play ISDF Sep 15, 08
    This is kind of stupid, seriously. The electricity costs for instance are kind of stupid to consider. If you care so much then turn the damn thing off at the wall after your done! But if you care about it that much, then you'd be turning off everything after your done, and nobody would do all that.
    • 1
      Slumpy monkey Sep 15, 08
      Or to save on electricity you can play in the dark and turn your tv off.

      They are also missing the hidden feature built into the 360: A personal heater, So it can save you money on heating.
      • 0
        Shadow of Death Sep 16, 08
        LOL yeah XD

        After playing my 360 for hours in my room, it tends to get rather warm >_> And I know it isn't just me (my PS3 doesn't produce as much heat it seems). It really does get warm enough to heat a whole room, pretty much.

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