Game Consoles

[Mark of Zorro]

My PS3 died. Yellow light of death. Well, it was about 5 years old and I used the hell out of it.

Now I am wondering what to buy next, as I have no hope I can fix it, and if I spend money I want something that will last and be useful.

On the one hand I am pissed off at Sony because the PS4 won't be sold in Japan until next year, but sooner elsewhere. Grrrr. I hate Sony. I cannot wait that long. But as I like the PS3, I am thinking of just getting a new PS3.

Or should I get an Xbox? I just don't know how the net connection will be. For me its all about first person shooters on-line. And I cannot wait for the next gen Xbox either.

Or should I get a Wii U? I have to admit I am impressed with the old Wii we have. Although I don't play with it much, it has always been reliable and stable and given me no BS. But it seems the Wii U is limited in game titles and has no standard Blu-ray player. I do like that PS3 plays blu-ray movies (as much as I hate Sony for killing HD DVD.)

So what do have? What do you recommend?

 

[FinancialWar]

Another one from Zorro.

Have you tried asking this question on IGN forum first?

 

[nahadef]

Region codes keep me with PS3 for now. Wii is region locked, you you must buy overpriced Japanese games, with no international language settings. On the PS3, I buy most of my games new from Europe through Amazon, averaging about ﾂ･2000 each. Domestically, even a used game averages ﾂ･3000. The Japanese market is utterly gauged.

From this point on, being region-free is a key decision in whatever system I use, followed by price, then games.

 

[letianchen]

I have all of the systems. Wii it utter ****. I can't imagine anyone playing the games on it unless its super smash bros brawl. IMO I would just use a PC assuming you have a good one and pirate some games off chinese websites or something like that. Otherwise get a PS3, I never liked playing for xbox live and thought it was the exact same as PS3... As long as you don't but a wii its ok. I dont have kinect for my xbox but I went to my friends house and played it and it was 100x better than any wii recognition. So Xbox or PS3 will do, i am a ps3 fanboy althought I have both. I never had any problems with my PS3, I was really young at the time and bought on the first day of release for the full price of 700 bucks. However Xbox has always given me ****** problems with overheating and freezes often. meh perhaps it is just a coincidence that it happened one way or another but I always thought PS3 was better quality.

 

[nahadef]

The Wii had a handful of great games, and I liked the controls, especially the improved sensor that came bundled with Sports Resort. Zelda Skyward Sword with that controller was marvelous. It's really bad value for the money compared to a PS3 now, but it wasn't so bad six years ago when a PS3 was ﾂ･60,000 and a Wii was ﾂ･25,000.

 

[Mark of Zorro]

Another one from Zorro.

Have you tried asking this question on IGN forum first?

I like asking people I know a bit. I also like keeping this forum flowing.

 

[Mark of Zorro]

letianchen, I would seriously consider the PC idea except that my son hogs the PC at home. I also consider it a pain to try and find a server or I might consider buying another PC.

I like that I boot up the PS3, start the game, and I am quickly and mostly automatically into an online game.

 

[Hezam]

Mark of Zorro, PS4 price will be 400 usd as i know, i have a suggestion, Invest the 400 usd on a small business for the moment until PS4 come out and by then you will have PS4 price + more money that you may need for PS4 accessories or games.
Weird suggestion ?
You will gain :
1- More money.
2- Experience ( even little).
3- Health ( since sitting in front of the TV effects your body in a bad way ).

 

[Mark of Zorro]

Mark of Zorro, PS4 price will be 400 usd as i know, i have a suggestion, Invest the 400 usd on a small business for the moment until PS4 come out and by then you will have PS4 price + more money that you may need for PS4 accessories or games.
Weird suggestion ?
You will gain :
1- More money.
2- Experience ( even little).
3- Health ( since sitting in front of the TV effects your body in a bad way ).

I have no idea how I could make enough money on 400 usd in 4 months to cover the brokerage fees to make the initial investment then change it back into cash at the end. In fact, my mind tells me that I will have less money than I started with unless that small business booms so much in four months that it becomes a medium business and experiences a share split or two.

Am I missing something?

Anyway, I can't wait through the winter to get a game console. I will be mummified by spring.

 

[Majestic]

Two options:

Get your PS3 fixed. Sony has excellent customer service for PS3. Basically you call their service center, and they'll send a courier to your place to pick up the console. You have to box it up (and they prefer you to use the original box, but its not a necessity) but after that Sony takes care of it. Should be back to you within 2 or 3 business days. Will probably cost around 10,000 yet. Might be a bit challenging if you don't speak Japanese, but otherwise its a really convenient system.

The other option is to buy a used PS3 at Book Off or somewhere to tide you over until you are ready to get a PS4. Should be able to find one for around 15,000 yen. Maybe less now that the PS4 is launching soon.

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

I have no idea how I could make enough money on 400 usd in 4 months to cover the brokerage fees to make the initial investment then change it back into cash at the end.

If you have an online brokerage account and invest $400, the fees will be only $6-$10 a trade depending on which site you use. If you invest in a growing company, you have a good chance that they will rise 10%-30% in the next four months (though that may be spiky and you may have to sell at a time other than exactly for months from now to realize that profit.)

Anyway, even 10% puts you at $40 profit - minus taxes, but surely that's no more than $10, leaving you $30, minus a $10 brokerage fee could leave you $20. If you get good timing and make 30% then you'd be looking at $120 - nearly $100 left after paying the bills.

Of course, If you -don't- already have an account, I don't know that you can open a brokerage account for under $500 and there may be an annual fee on top of that that you'd have to add in.

The real kicker though, is that any business likely to rise 10%-30% in the next 4 months also has a real chance of losing value in the next 4 months instead of going up. (If it did not have that chance - or at least appear to have that chance from the available information - then the price would already have gone up to value for future growth and profits, and it wouldn't have as much room to grow anymore.)

You could be left holding stock that isn't worth enough to buy you a refurbished PS3 never mind a new PS4. I'd research my investment quite carefully here. Actually, if I only had $400 to put in the market, I'd buy Verizon or maybe a power company, but nothing risky or worth investing in for only 4 months. In any case, the hours of market research to make an informed investment decision would make the profits of questionable value depending on what else you could be doing with your time. If you had some thousands or tens of thousands, that would be another matter, you'd be a little silly to let that money lie idle, IMO.

 

[Mark of Zorro]

SomeCallMeChris, so what you are saying is that I would be crazy to invest.

 

[Mark of Zorro]

Two options:

Get your PS3 fixed. Sony has excellent customer service for PS3. Basically you call their service center, and they'll send a courier to your place to pick up the console. You have to box it up (and they prefer you to use the original box, but its not a necessity) but after that Sony takes care of it. Should be back to you within 2 or 3 business days. Will probably cost around 10,000 yet. Might be a bit challenging if you don't speak Japanese, but otherwise its a really convenient system.

The other option is to buy a used PS3 at Book Off or somewhere to tide you over until you are ready to get a PS4. Should be able to find one for around 15,000 yen. Maybe less now that the PS4 is launching soon.

As they do not actually fix your PS3, but just give you a different refurbished one I decided against. They don't even give your game saves back.

Plus its refurbished and if it breaks again in 2 months, I will be majorly pissed. Same if I buy a used on at Hard Off.

And just because the PS4 will be available in several months does not mean I will actually be able to get one in that time. And I can't be bothered to go through the murder of acquiring one as it is released. Maybe in a year or two.

So I went ahead and bought a PS3 slim for like 250,000 yen. I am sure I will get my money's worth and I hope this one will last so I will have a blu-ray player.

What burns me though is that this model is not PS2 compatible like my fat model PS3. That means some of my games are useless.

Anyway, thanks for the advice all. It did help me make a decision. I was glad to get back to Black Ops 2 and my new "cheat". (permanent crosshairs which really helps with axe throwing! Got a guy from the end of a hallway as he went for the door!)

And I may in the future take my old PS3 apart and follow the repair advice on-line. They say you need to get it down to the motherboard, strip off the heat paste from the CPUs, heat it with a heat gun in specific places, and replace the heat paste. They say the boards are cheaply soldered and need a bit or remelting and resetting. Who knows? But at least I will be able to play games not go nuts if it fails since I have the new PS3.

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

SomeCallMeChris, so what you are saying is that I would be crazy to invest.

Assuming you only have $400 to work with and need it back in 4 months to buy a console? Yes, pretty much.

Your real finances might be a different matter. Also if you could leave the money in the market for a year or two it might be a different matter. But the suggestion as outlined simply has a terrible balance of risk and reward.