What Should Be the Official Console of The Next Great Depression?

[wraggster]

With the economy on the ropes and a recession running around like death at the masquerade, it seems inevitable that we're going to be dealing with question eventually, so let's get to it now.

NPR argued yesterday that video games could serve as the mass opiate of this generation's great depression. In the 30s that role was served by nickle movies, but today's audience can perhaps get more bang for their buck, more distraction for their dollar with a game.

So which one will best help people to forget their worldly woes?

The Playstation 3 has theoretical future-proofing in the bag and includes a bunch of built in features that make using it for other purposes (without additional cost) a breeze and of course it has a Blu-ray player. Then again it's the most expensive, and blu-ray movies aren't exactly cheap either.

The Wii is the family friendliest of the bunch, the one most likely to attract reticent non-gamers to it's fold. Of course most of its games aren't as deep and it isn't the cheapest on the market anymore.

The Xbox 360 has the biggest selection of consoles, including the cheapest on the market. It also has the biggest selection of cheap downloadable titles and robust video on demand support, soon to be amplified by Netflix. But tapping into all of the 360's potential features means buying expensive add-ons, like the harddrive.

The arcade. Yes, the arcade. While they are almost non-existent in the U.S. and the likelihood that someone is going to suddenly invest in opening them up, especially now, is crazy, I think arcades are really the closest example of what happened in the 30s with movies. You don't need a television, you don't even need electricity, you just need a quarter and the time to play.

http://kotaku.com/5054621/what-shoul...eat-depression

[XDelusion]

Assuming electric is even available...

...a lot of us might be forced to go off the grid...

[newb_fo_life]

Pandora!!

[gutbub]

I'm gonna have to say the Wii wins this one. It's the most family friendly, and the people that will suffer the most from a depression are the ones who have a big family to support. That, and while it's debatable, the Wii is by far the most popular, at least in my city. 2 years after release, and it's still constantly sold out here.

[The_Ultimate_Eggman]

PS3 it is certainly the most depressing....SOOooo much potential wasted.

[____anders____]

PS3 it is certainly the most depressing....SOOooo much potential wasted.

whatever he says

I think the PS3 would be better if it had more exclusives that are good, like Metal Gear.
other than Metal Gear, all games for PS3 sucks.. sry sony but you just didn't make it longer than the PSX for me..

[jrsmaster411]

What are you talking abut the ps3 has the best exclusives uncharted, heavenly sword, littlebigplanet, heavy rain, wipeout hd, gran turismo, resistance, fat princess, dc online maybe their just not your type of games but their is no shortage of good ps3 games especially cause half of the good 360 games can be found on ps3 and the other half can be found on pc not to mention home which will be coming out this year. But as far as depression I'd say wii cause it's cheapest, although it is the most depressing because of all it's shovelware

[Eviltaco64]

I suppose that arcades would be good.

*Just had a random thought.

Maybe we may have a great depression, which means that maybe we'll have more successful arcades, which means MAYBE we might have a more successful Sega!!

EDIT: Radio might become popular again.. Just think about it, if we have limited electricity, those hand-crank radios would be great.

[gamev8]

I'm a Zelda/Nintendo freak but I for one would love to see arcades come back in style.