One Platform to Rule Them All

[Something Amyss]

Overall, a good argument. However, I have a bone to pick with one bit.

The Xbox 360 sold 80 million units. However, its stunning 54% failure rate (!) means that there's less than 37 million of them still in service. Sony might have bungled The Playstation 3 design, but it also sold about 80 million units. The PS3 failure rate was better than the Xbox 360, but still pretty embarrassing at 10%. Which means there are about 72 million still in operation.

This assumes too much:

-That a self-reported unscientific poll in one magazine is accurate and reliable
-That these numbers remained the same throughout the console generation
-That people don't service or repair consoles.

2 even has sub problems. Not only did Microsoft release revisions that didn't crap out just for looking at them wrong, but as an electronics device ages, the failure rate rises. Even assuming the self-reported failure rate is accurate--hell, even if we assume those early revisions have a 100% failure rate--that tells us nothing about the numbers still in service. People got their units repaired, both officially and not. They got their units replaced in some instances. This could account for anything from a trivial fraction to 100% of the units still being on the market.

That's not to say they beat Steam, by the way, but there's an issue of raw numbers being rather....Useless. It's funny, because I bet some of the people who are going "PC Gaming Master Race!" right now wouldn't count a good chunk of the users on Steam as "real gamers" in other, less opportunistic scenarios. Like, for example, when the number of female gamers is being brought up and they suddenly don't like the notion of those girls being in their treehouse.

 

[Something Amyss]

sorry, i got defensive at the universe revolving comment. i guess i'm not naturally tech savvy, just like having a go at things

No, it's my fault - I admit I got little "sour" while typing that "universe" thing. I could have said it in less accusatory way. Sorry about that and glad we're cool.

Cmoe on! You guys are doing it wrong! Nobody says "It's all good" on the internet! There must be a blood feud between the two of you until one is declared objectively right!

....Sarcasm aside, I just wanted to note I did think it was cool yu guys didn't come to internet blows. Good on you.

 

[Blitzing]

So, once we get all the people with multiple play-stations and xBoxes out, of the way, then we get, well, even more steam games :O http://puu.sh/7X3DT.jpg

 

[Sphinx86]

Counting as both a PS3 user and Steam user, the Steambox (and/or Steam OS) really interest me. I very rarely buy games when they come out (I'm too cheap to pay the ~$100AUD), but always end up with a vast back catalogue of sale bought games I never got round to playing (Seriously my PSX still works and there's at least half a dozen games I've never played on it).
The idea that my back catalogue never becomes useless because a specific piece of hardware dies, or that I can easily pull it up without having to find where I stored my old console is a good one.

For me personally there are also two other reasons why I might make the switch instead of getting a PS4:
1/. I am a Linux user for the last 6 years, SteamOS being based on Linux means the single fundamental weakness of the Linux will be slowly negated ( I am talking about the lack of AAA level games, or even AA).
2/. They at least have media streaming on the road map and PS4 don't. The amount that my wife and I use the PS3 as a media client at least equals the amount of games we play on it.

Of course on the other hand there is inFamous: Second Son.