Could someone tell me the pros and cons of having a PS3?

[Con Carne]

Blu-ray, The hard drive can be swapped, good online store, awesome comfortable controller, wireless connection already installed, don't have to pay for the online service, a good catalog of games which is still growing and getting better, if you can find an older one, it will be backwards compatible, but if you get a slim then I think it can only play PS1 games, since they're on CD and not DVD.
I have one of the last 80gb backwards compatible models, and I have no problems with it what-so-ever. So I can't really list any cons for you.

 

[Dexiro]

It has a chunky list of awesome exclusives, that sells it for me

I don't get why people are complaining about the install times. Some so take a while but never more than 10 minutes (and that's rare). You can't be in so much of a rush that you can't wait 2 minutes for a one-time install, it's optional most of the time too.

 

[Judgement101]

But it costs a heap and you have to install games.

The latter is more tedious than a real problem, the former isn't true. When you factor in Xbox Live Gold simply for the privilege of playing online a 360 costs twice as much over the life of the console than a PS3, and that's not factoring in that you'll easily go through two 360s while a PS3 is still going strong.

PS3 is the cheapest of the 3 consoles as far as long term cost goes. With the Wii you end up paying a bunch for all the accessory controllers, for the 360 you're paying for stuff that comes included with the PS3 and for being able to play online.

Thats not true about going through two 360s. Me and 5 of my friends all have 360s and none of them have crashed/RRoD and we have had them for around 4 years. My PS3 on the other hand yellow lighted within a year.

 

[TobintheGnome]

Pros: Blu Ray. Certain exclusives (Demon's Souls, God of War, MGS4 etc...)

Cons: Inferior multi-plats. New units (slim) don't have backwards compatibility.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Pros-
Varied exclusives
blu-ray player
pretty games
backwards compatible (depends on what model you get, don't ask me which has it and which doesn't)
built in wi-fi (I don't have a PS3, but I remember hearing it had this. Correct me if I'm wrong)

Cons-
Online is free, but it's also more prone to lag than Live, and downloads take longer.
Having to sometimes install games takes away the "pop-in and play" aspect that consoles had over PCs


That's about all I got. I personally don't have one, but I used to live with a friend who did, and I thought it was fun, but I really saw no reason to buy one for myself when I had a perfectly good 360 Elite and a decent gaming computer to already eat up all my game-time.

Real backwards compatability (xbox has it too...but its just a lie)

uhm...I think you've got that backwards. Sony stopped making backwards compatible PS3s, whereas just about every original Xbox game can be played on a 360, in fact quite a few of them can be bought directly over Live. They no longer have online support, but with the exception of Halo 2, I don't think any of them had any community left, anyway.

 

[Nwabudike Morgan]

Really? Only thing iv ever heard is that ps3 version comes on less disks and looks better.

The PS3 has a really complex architecture (it has 8 processors, after all, with one as a "brain" that issues orders to the other six (the seventh co-processor isn't used) that requires a very different approach than coding for a more traditional architecture like the one in the 360, one that is more difficult, and as such multiplatform games often don't run as smoothly or are rendered with diminished visual fidelity. Sometimes the PS3 version comes out on top, but a lot of the time it is inferior on a technical level.

 

[cerebus23]

all the above reasons, its a darn good blu ray player tho that not a big selling point anymore since you can get blu ray players fairly cheap now days when back at launch a stand alone blu ray player would run you what a ps3 would cost.

a great library of good games and gran turismo 5 due out later this year. one game i partially bought my system for long ago...

most installs arent THAT bad. maybe a hand full of games but most are more in the 5 to 10 minute range. lest of the ones i installed.

and dont even start on the price, i mean like others have said xbl sub, shipping your console in for repair 2 or 3 times. not that ps3 cant have issues but for every one ps3 that goes bad probably 10 or 20 xboxes go belly up to rrod. had my ps3 over a year a half or 2 years and never had an issue with it, but heck i got a launch day ps2 that runs to this day if i give the laser a bit of a cleaning.

 

[omega 616]

You don't get a choice about installs but in my experience not alot of games install.

Besides a few crashes I have never had a problem with my launch PS3, my only small gripe is my analogue sticks stick sometimes.

I assume there just in need of a good clean but with what?

 

[TheTim]

pros: has free live, decent games, blu ray
cons: no backwards compatabilaty, the live is second rate.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Pros:
Good exclusives, Blu-Ray player, free PSN, powerful system makes for good looking games (most of the time, multiplatform can be dodgy).

Cons:
Online can be laggy at times, the thing gets really hot (no fun in summer), the console itself is quite expensive.

 

[LightOfDarkness]

If online matters to you, PSN isn't as good as Live connection wise. This also means that downloads take considerably longer.

Lack of backwwards compatability is annoying too.

Im going to feel stupid for asking this but what is backwwards compatibility?

Playing PS2 games on a PS3.

Also, the PS3 has a yellow light of death. Incase you ever get that and don't know what it means.

 

[Yostbeef]

The only con i can think of is having to spend money on it in this economy no one wants to do that and no backwards compatibility support was piss in the eye for me other than that it plays games and its got a few exclusives to go with it that are worth checking out like infamous and as much as i tried not to like uncharted 2 its actually pretty good game.I have had mine for almost 4 years now and the only concern i am having is the blu ray drive might be ready to go the way of old yeller or maybe i just need to dust off the lens.Its gotta pretty crappy interface its obvious what company specializes in operating systems

 

[Thunderhorse31]

The pro/con lists here are pretty comprehensive, but in the interest of fairness I'll admit that I've actually had more problems with my PS3 than my 360.

My fat 60 gig stopped reading Blurays after 2 years, and I needed to have it shipped to Sony (and pay $150) to fix. I thought about cracking it open myself but I really didn't want to risk having to buy another system (at the time it was $400). The controllers on the PS3 are also slightly more flimsy as well - I have a Sixaxis with a wonky analog stick and a Dualshock 3 with buttons that stick sometimes - and for the record, I take very good care of my systems (smoke-free, open air, cooling systems, etc.), so it's not like a throw this stuff around.

My 360 on the other hand has worked like a gem for the 4 years I've had it, so I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I just wanted to say that the PS3 is not immune to hardware failure, though it does seem to be rare.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Um...thats probably about 20 ish games that are compatable on the Xbox, and PS3's can still backward compatable a large amount of PS2 games if im not mistaken, but i dont know which ones exactly.

20 ish? I'm sorry, but that just isn't true.

<url=http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm>http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm
*note that the "emulator" needed is just a patch that you download the first time you play the game connected to Live.

And after checking, it turns out ALL Slims and all but the oldest PS3's aren't backwards compatible with PS2 games, but they can play PS1 games.

 

[Yagharek]

The pro/con lists here are pretty comprehensive, but in the interest of fairness I'll admit that I've actually had more problems with my PS3 than my 360.

My fat 60 gig stopped reading Blurays after 2 years, and I needed to have it shipped to Sony (and pay $150) to fix. I thought about cracking it open myself but I really didn't want to risk having to buy another system (at the time it was $400). The controllers on the PS3 are also slightly more flimsy as well - I have a Sixaxis with a wonky analog stick and a Dualshock 3 with buttons that stick sometimes - and for the record, I take very good care of my systems (smoke-free, open air, cooling systems, etc.), so it's not like a throw this stuff around.

My 360 on the other hand has worked like a gem for the 4 years I've had it, so I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I just wanted to say that the PS3 is not immune to hardware failure, though it does seem to be rare.

Probably due to your epic username.

My 360 usually works fine, though sometimes plays up and won't read discs. Switching off and on usually fixes this though.

 

[hyperdrachen]

I can understand why it would be expensive, paying a bunch of money for something thats proven to be really good, im suprised no one has mentioned portal 2 yet lol

Portal 2 is not a ps3 exclusive the only thing its not coming to is the wii