In one corner of the ring is Sony's powerhouse, PlayStation 3, clad in a devilish black. In the other corner of the ring is Nintendo's wee Wii, clad in angelic white.
The all-new gaming systems are ready for an epic battle, in which everyone -- from hard-core gamers anxiously awaiting the systems for months to minivan moms ready to end their Christmas shopping -- will have to choose between the two and ultimately crown one the new champion.
Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii go on sale in State College this weekend -- but how does one choose between the two?
The different prices, games and controllers -- in that order -- of the PlayStation and Wii serve as the main selling points of the systems, said Josh Chesnutwood, sales associate at Circuit City, 48 Colonnade Way.
PlayStation 3 comes in two configurations and costs between $500 and $600, whereas the Wii comes in one configuration and costs about $250. The PlayStation's first-party games cost about $60, while the Wii's first-party games cost about $50, Chesnutwood said.
PlayStation launches with Resistance: Fall of Man and NBA 07 as headlining games. Resistance is a "phenomenal, first-person shooter," said Ron Eagle, public relations manager at Sony Computer Entertainment America. The Wii launches with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Excite Truck as the headlining games.
Both systems come with wireless controllers, although the PlayStation's controllers feature a button that can turn off the system remotely, Chesnutwood said.
The wee Wii forgoes such a button because it uses less electricity than the PlayStation and can be left on all of the time without fear of driving the electric bill through the roof, said Danny Beardsworth, an intern at GolinHarris, which handles Nintendo's public relations. He added that the wee Wii could be left on 24/7 without overheating as well.
PlayStation plays Blu-ray DVDs, whereas the Wii does not play DVDs, Chesnutwood said. Additionally, PlayStations come with 20 or 60 billion units of computer storage, depending on configuration, while the Wii comes with 512 million units of computer storage. PlayStation is the graphics heavyweight -- capable of supporting games with 1080p resolution, Eagle said, which the highest quality TVs can support. The Wii is the graphics lightweight, only capable of supporting games with 480p resolution, Beardsworth said. However, it takes higher quality TV, capable of supporting more than 480p resolution, to give the PlayStation an advantage.
"It's still going to look fantastic," Beardsworth said of the Wii's picture quality.
PlayStation and Wii will be evenly matched in terms of customer service and sound quality, Chesnutwood said. The online gaming environments, the PlayStation Network and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, will be similar.
Sony is relying on loyal customers -- PlayStation's "clearly superior set of technology" and a catalogue of more than 16,000 PlayStation-compatible games from the first two PlayStations as its main weapons against the Wii, Eagle said.
Nintendo is expecting to bring back people who got out of gaming and bring in people who never got into gaming with the user-friendly Wii, which features fun games for the average person and total emergence into games through motion-sensitive controllers, Beardsworth said.
When PlayStation 3 goes on sale Friday, about 400,000 units will be available, and about 600,000 more will be available by the end of the year, Eagle said. When the Wii goes on sale Sunday, about 1 million will be available, and more than 1 million more will be available by the end of the year, Beardsworth said.
