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A systems' availability, specifications, price, number and quality of games and perhaps most importantly its' ability to provide fun and longevity are all factors that should be considered when purchasing a game console. After assessing the PS2 and Xbox on these criteria can we determine which console succeeds at obtaining higher sales?

The PS2 has the most games available as a result of its backward compatibility with Playstation. PS2 can not only play games intended for the original Playstation but it also makes them look better. It does not seem that Sony will have this advantage for very long however, as Xbox gears up to offer an extensive amount of games to a variety of gamers.

These two consoles are very similar in price however, Xbox tends to require the purchase of extra equipment for additional functions. For example, the PS2 comes ready to play DVD's whereas the Xbox requires the purchase of the Xbox DVD playback kit. The Xbox to its credit does contain an 8GB Hard drive and is broadband ready and offers a live online gaming service. It is worth mentioning that PS2 does have extra gadgets available also for example a DVD remote, a hard disk, a mouse, a keyboard, an eye toy camera and game-specific gadgets such as a microphone for Guitar Hero.

Both systems have online capabilities, a similar amount and quality of games, cost the same amount of money and target the same market. The differences to follow put Xbox a nose ahead of the PS2. The graphics are sharper on an Xbox. Xbox loads and saves games faster since it writes the saved game data directly to the hard drive. This eliminates the need for memory cards. Also, with the purchase of 2 additional games and a controller a 50 dollar rebate was being offered on Xbox making it 50 dollars cheaper!

However, PS2 remained the leader in the industry. The year of its release the Playstation 2 showed the power of brand awareness and supplying capabilities. Sony Playstation 2 was the sales leader with a final tally of 1.4 million units sold as opposed to 934,000 Xbox consoles. With the launch of a new product by each manufacturer, Sony's Playstation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 can we expect similar results? Is the PS3 likely to keep its lead in light of the inclusion of a blu-ray player combined with its industry clout? The most notable advantage for Microsoft is it's one year jump on the release of the PS3 which resulted in many multi-platform developers making Xbox 360 their primary platform, which means the games will look and perform better. The PS3 versions will be ports of the 360 versions (the opposite was true for Xbox and PS2). The PS3 ($399.00) is also 100 dollars more expensive than the Xbox 360($299.00).

A systems' availability, specifications, price, number and quality of games and perhaps most importantly its' ability to provide fun and longevity are all factors that should be considered when purchasing a game console. An assessment of these variables for the PS2 and Xbox revealed two very similar products and a leader as a result of industry clout. Their newer versions have changed the platforms a bit and resulted in products that are more dissimilar than their predecessors. These changes are bound to shake up the results of future product analysis! Educational Computer Software and Games.