So it’s that time of year again.

What time is that Bwana?

Well, it’s the time where you need to decide on which console to buy for your loved one. You’ve picked a perfect time to buy since all the consoles, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 are over two years old and have matured as platforms. Each console has a variety of games to choose from as well as social entertainment features that will knock your socks off. If only Pong! were alive to see this. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony are fighting tooth and nail to get your business, so let’s get right down to it.

The Culprits

There are three main players in this space and I’ll give a brief description of each:

• The Xbox 360 (360) – First out of the gate, Microsoft’s follow-up to the Xbox console was released with the promise of a more robust online offering and media center capabilities. This console supports high definition televisions as well as standard definition, has wired or wireless controllers, and can connect to the internet via wired ethernet connection or wireless internet.
• The Nintendo Wii (Wii) – Formerly known as the Nintendo Revolution, Nintendo’s follow-up with the Gamecube assured gamers that it would redefine console gaming. The Nintendo Wii is the most unique as it offers motion sensing controls to an already stellar lineup of first-party titles such as Mario, Zelda, and others. It connects to the internet via Wi-Fi and offers a variety of other features that take advantage.
• The Playstation 3 (PS3) – The king of consoles returns with a sequel to its record breaking Playstation 2 console and offers a high-end spin on consoles. The PS3 promises the glory of high definition optical support in the form of Blu-Ray, and a rich multimedia experience that Sony has been known for. Sony also promised to concentrate more on the online gaming and made a big deal out of their consoles brute strength and offerings.

The Questions

When considering these fabulous consoles, you should be asking yourself questions. If you haven’t started asking questions, I’ll get you started:

1. Do I care about online gaming?
2. Do I care about high definition gaming?
3. Do I care about high definition movies?
4. Do I play with friends and family often in person?
5. Do I want to leverage this console as a music player, video player, and photo viewer?
6. Do I have wireless internet?
7. Do I want to buy or rent movies from my game console?
8. Do I know what bluetooth is and do I own any bluetooth hardware?
9. What am I willing to spend after I buy the console?
10. Do I want to play my old Xbox/PS2/Nintendo Gamecube games on this new console?
11. What types of games do I like the most? Platformers? Role Playing Games? First person Shooters? Real time strategy? Music Rhythm Games?

These are just some of the questions that I have posed to people when asked which console to buy. As an owner of all three consoles, I can never recommend anything without first getting the needs and wants of the purchaser. So, now that you’ve asked yourself these questions, let’s dig a bit further.

The Profiles

When answering questions about which console you’ll buy, there are four main profiles that you’ll likely fit into (and I do stress likely)

1. The casual gamer
2. The gadget freak who sometimes plays games
3. The semi-casual online gamer
4. The hardcore gamer

The casual gamer tends to play games less than 5 hours a week, and often has to be invited in order to become motivated. These gamers play when friends and family come over, during parties, events, but do not generally play as a pass time. The casual gamer usually finds out about multimedia features of their console by visiting a friend who uses theirs.

The gadget freak who sometimes plays games tends to play games for maybe 10 hours a month depending on the situation. He or she will buy every new game that comes out, but won’t play it for more than 2 hours after buying it. The game collects dust and the gamer will claim to own it, but never play it. The gadget freak will utilize all of the features of the console except the gaming part.

The semi-casual semi-online gamer may average between 10-15 hours week depending on outside circumstances. If a new game comes out, this gamer may buy it to try it out, and play for it many hours, but eventually taper off into semi-casual mode again. This gamer is generally aware of the multimedia features of consoles and most times will take advantage of one or two.

The hardcore gamer can kill 40 hours a week playing 3 to 4 games online and offline. This machine of a man or woman will forego the love of family and friends to reach that new level, climb that impossible mountain, finish that new game on Super-duper-incredibly-impossibly-hard difficulty. The only music they care about is the music they can play while playing their favorite game. Movies, pictures, and the like are generally secondary.

So which are you? Remember, I did say likely. It’s my guess that you’re probably a combination of the profiles, (I know I am) so let’s dig a bit deeper.

The Method

The next step is to combine the needs, wants, the estimated profile of the purchaser to build a priority list. Let’s take an example to help you out.

Johnny Doodad plays games online only on weekends but usually plays 1-2 hours, Monday through Friday. Johnny has homework and his parents are strict on his gaming hours during the week. If Johnny does well, he gets to go all out on the weekend. Johnny loves first person shooters and platformers but never finishes them. Johnny already owns a Gamecube and an Xbox.

Based on my college education, I would rate Johnny a cross between a semi-casual online gamer and hardcore gamer. If given the chance, Johnny could easily rack up hours playing games, but has to adhere to the parental units. Given his lack of time towards the games, Johnny loses interest and shifts focus to another game before finishing the previous. Now, Johnny likes first person shooters and platformers, but he’s not necessarily loyal (an assumption). So let’s analyze:

Gamer Type: Semi-casual online
Genre Preferences: FPS, Platformer
Owned Systems: Nintendo Gamecube, Xbox
Gaming Preference: Plays on weekends, mostly online, but little during the week.

So which does Johnny care about the most? Let’s try to rank them:

1. Gaming Preference
2. Genre Preferences
3. Owned System
4. Gamer type

These are guesses, but they could provide an accurate view of where to concentrate your focus. Given that Johnny plays online, likes FPS and Platformers, and owns an Xbox, I would recommend an Xbox 360 in this case. It gives him his top 3 priorities right off the bat. Now, even if Gamer type were misplaced, and would be #2 on his priority list, an Xbox 360 would probably fit him best.

See the method? It’s all fuzzy and really depends on a lot of factors. This is the only way I can explain which console to buy this holiday. You have to ask yourself these questions and more to gauge which features are more important to you than others. Here’s a general guideline to go by:

Xbox 360
Pros: Platform has matured, Cheap initial price ($199 base), High definition gaming, High definition movie support (downloadable), Great game library, Online gameplay, Online marketplace, Great online community features, Great multimedia features (movie rentals, tv shows, music, photos, etc)
Cons: Costs $50 a year to play online, Pricey accessories, Prone to break (get a warranty!), No web browser

Nintendo Wii
Pros: Platform has matured, Cheap ($250), Excellent first-party titles (Mario, Zelda, etc), Unique controls, Lots of fun with family and friends, Online marketplace, web browser (costs extra)
Cons: Hard to find (too popular), Lots of accessories (Wheels, Balance board, Controllers, Gun, etc), Game library mediocre (due to poor third-party support) Poor online gaming support, Not so great multimedia support (No DVD Playback)

Playstation 3
Pros: Platform has matured, High definition gaming, High definition optical support (Blu-Ray), Superb multimedia features, Online gameplay is free, Updated often, Online marketplace, Supports existing Bluetooth and USB devices, User upgradeable storage, Built-in web browser, Linux operation system supported (basic features)
Cons: Pricey (starts at $399), Entire game library mediocre, Online community not is vivacious as Xbox Live

Wow!

I just did those off the top of my head. You see why this decision is not straight forward? I didn’t cover everything and it’s already overwhelming the amount of features each offers and also their pros and cons. It’s important to get those questions answered and prioritize them to find out which may be best for you.

The Wildcard

But, what about PC gaming? PC gaming is not dead by any means and offers a wide variety of choices. While price may be a barrier for some people, let me tell you about a deal that Valve has. They are offering their entire gaming library for $99. That’s right, they are offering 22 games for $99. You are not going to find that on a console. Granted, most of these games are first person shooters, it is definitely something to consider. Gaming PCs are coming down in price and if you price one compared to a console with 3 or 4 games, they price difference isn’t all that great. I’m not going to get into a PC gaming vs console gaming war here, but I do want to make you aware of this often overlooked wildcard.

Conclusion

In short, continue to research! I’ve provided a method of soliciting information in various categories and prioritizing them to attempt to find a best fit. There is no one size fits all for this type of decision. So, when asked which gaming console should you buy this holiday, the answer is it all depends on what you want, what you need, and how bad you want and need it.

Happy shopping everyone. It’s hard to go wrong this year.

Related posts:

• Are You Selfish With Your Console Recommendations?
• What Will The Playstation 3 Need To Survive?
• Warning: Your Console May Soon Get Viruses
• Portable Gaming and VoIP
• XBox Live Marketplace: Get er done!