and All Consoles

There always seems to be at least one constant when it comes to the world of games system launches: shortages. There was absolutely no difference this time around as all three of the big console names, the Microsoft Xbox 360, the Sony PlayStation 3, and finally the Nintendo Wii, can’t seem to keep up with such high demand. Nintendo executives were prepared for the potential shortfall in supplies, and produced millions of the consoles for the launch of the Nintendo Wii.

They weren’t however, prepared for such an overwhelming demand for their new console. Nintendo attempted to have over four million units ready and available worldwide for the launch period. That is from its initial launch date on November 19, to the Christmas rush. Without doubt every shipment so far made from Nintendo to the retailers has sold out within the first day of arriving on the shop floor. It would most likely of been quite tricky for many to get their hands on a Wii for Christmas. As Christmas has now passed, the rush should gradually slow down, making it easier to lay your hands on the console.

Here are some tips that you may find useful with regards to purchasing a Nintendo Wii.

If you visit your local retailers to discover that they are out of stock, the first thing that you need to do is remain patient. If your disappointed that you missed out on your chance to grab a Wii during this weeks shipment, it not really the end of the world. There will plenty of new stocks of the Wii console arriving every week. What you don’t want to do is get so impatient that you buy a Wii on eBay for double the retail price.

Having said that, remember that eBay is still definitely a great place to check on deals for the Wii. If possible don’t let yourself be immediately attracted to the Buy it Now actions as these are the ones that tend to charge more than the retail price. What you want to start out with are the regular bid auctions. Make a search for “Nintendo Wii” and sort the auctions by “time remaining”. If you are living in the United States, you’ll only want to display only those results from North America. It is important to do this as there are a lot of scammers on eBay, and these scammers are typically located in overseas countries, such as Hong Kong or Japan.

After making your search, you should now have a list of all the Wii auctions that are ending soonest. What you are looking out for are the auctions where the lowest bid in currently below the retail price of the Wii ($249.99). These are the best auctions that you’ll want to start bidding on.

Always make sure to check on the shipping cost before bidding when using eBay. Some sellers will deliberately start out with a low cost, but charge an outrageous amount for shipping. This is an attempt to circumvent eBay’s seller’s fees. This method does not always work, but with the amount of users on eBay, there are still going to be plenty of people that have not taken the time to check the auction listing carefully and still bid on the auction, only to be shocking by the shipping cost when the invoice is received.

With a little bit of luck, you may be able to snatch up a Nintendo Wii for cheap. This may not be possible at the moment as there is still a very high demand for this console. The exact same principle will apple for Wii controller, games, and other accessories.

A further way to get the right deal on a Wii is to buy it in a bundle. Some shops and online stores are able to offer the Wii bundled with various games, accessories, etc. These bundles may seem at first to be quite expensive; however it does save you some money. If you take the time to take note of what the price would be if you bought every item separately you will quickly notice that you are getting everything at a great price. One important point to remember when buying a bundle is whether you really need and/or want everything in the bundle. An example would be if your not to keen on one or two of the games included, maybe it would be wise to buy everything individually.
Published by Darren Lintern

There are many gaming enthusiasts out there that are stuck between which of the new gaming system to buy – Playstation 3 vs. Xbox 360. Although there is no doubt that they are both great systems, the Playstation 3 is by far the best option. Both are similar in price, so that’s not really a factor that needs to be taken into consideration. An important issue that you may not always think about is the warranty of the products. The Playstation 3 offers a full only year warranty while the Xbox 360 offers only a 90 day warranty.

This may be something that you have already realised for yourself, but the first thing you need to know is that the graphics on the Playstation 3 are completely awesome! It you have not yet seen the Playstation in action, go and check out the screenshots of some games. Both the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 offer the same memory at 512MB. The Playstation 3 offers 256MB of XDR memory and 256 MBMB of GDDR3 memory that is specific to graphics. On the other hand the Xbox 360 uses the Unified Memory Architecture, which allows the CPU and GPU to stare the memory. On both consoles systems the bandwidth is similar.

If data storage capabilities are important to you than you be really happy with what the Playstation 3 has to offer. It come with as standard a portable media including six USB cable ports, memory stick slot, SD slot, and support for compact flash. Also included is a 2.5” removable hard drive. For anyone that is upgrading from a Playstation 2 you will be pleased to learn that you can purchase a memory card adapter for approx. $15 so that you won’t need to leave any data behind that was stored on memory cards. The Xbox 360 does slightly lag behind in this area. It will provide you will two memory card slots and several USB cable ports that support your iPod and memory sticks.

The Playstation 3 includes a much better system for supporting its predecessor’s games. In order to play Playstation 1 & 2 games you only need to slip them right in the console for instant play. Many of the Playstation 1 & 2 games will be enhanced graphics than they did on the previous systems. Whilst the Xbox 360 will also accept Xbox games, it does involve a more complicated process. To make it work, users will need to be connected to Xbox Live. Once connected, the games system will download the necessary software upgrade to make the game usable. This will result in you waiting whilst it searches, downloads, restarts and than finally loads the game.

Now on to the controller – The Playstation 3 controller is lighter and much more comfortable to handle than that of the Playstation 2. The changes in design are intended to allow the user hours of entertainment with sore hands. This is of course very important to consumers. Now onto the Xbox 360 controller which has also had a new design. It has been designed with large buttons to allow easy game play. For both gaming systems the new controller design has been well received. Also, both systems offer wireless controllers. However, the Playstation 3 has the ability to allow up to seven controllers to the connected to the console at one time for certain games. This is something that the Xbox 360 doesn’t offer.

Video games systems are extremely popular for all age groups. Every gaming enthusiast wants to lay their hands on a games system that is easy to use with many great features included. They also want to play the most exciting games that are available. The Playstation 3 offers a better product than the Xbox 360 in each of these highlighted categories. Right now, the Playstation is best selling gaming system when it comes to the Playstation 3 vs. Xbox 360 contest.

Published by Darren Lintern