360 has a lot more exlusives. For those who CAN afford to buy all the great games, Not everyone has 500$ to spend on games you'll get more out of your 360 than your PS3, not to mention a lot of the cross-platform games on both of them simply perform AND look better on the 360. That's opinion. It depends on your TV as well. I'm not just saying all that either; I've played the same games on both systems at times and so I can compare them first-hand. The ones I played all looked better on 360 and lagged less. :/ Since when did PS3 games lag?When developers start fine-tuning games for the PS3 better, maybe then I'd change my tune.
The PS3 has much more power than the 360; the developers will take some time to use all of it. The first few games on the PS2 were scarcely better than those on the PS2
Anyway, buying a Pro console for 360 gives you the ethernet cable, not to mention they're about $15 anyway. It's just if you go for the wireless adapter that it gets pricey (and that brings it up to the price of a PS3, I guess). But why even mention the HD-DVD drive? That's dead; I'm not even sure why you'd buy it, let alone pay more than $20-30 for it.
PS3 has Blue-Ray. A PS3 itself if much cheaper than stand-alone Blue-Ray players. As I said before, the developers are not harnessing the full processing power of the PS3 or the capacity of Blue-Ray disks.
The main arguments, to me, in the whole 360 VS PS3 battle are the games and the online features--and the latter kind of depends on how you'd prefer to play.
Live is amazing; I'm not saying it isn't. It's just that the PSN is new. It'll take time to get to the level of Live. Home was a disappointing, but you have to keep in mind that the version released was only the beta, not the full pack.
The point I am trying to make here is that Sony bides it's time. They make consoles which last for a long time in the market. The PS2 is an example; it was released ten years ago but it's still being manufactured, is still popular and is still outselling every other console on the market.
Microsoft is different. They want to make quick profits. The XBox lasted for less than five years in the market before it was pulled out to make room for the 360. I'm betting than in another two to three years, the next XBox will come out and Microsoft will dispose of the 360 the same way they did the original.
The PS3 has a Blue-Ray player built in it because the world is slowly converting to high-definition. In three years or so, HDTVs will become common and Blue-Rays will become the next DVDs and Sony will finally be able to make full use of the PS3s capacity to play 1080p games.
The games will get better. PSN will get better. All the PS3 needs is time.
So my advice is that, if you want to get the most of your games
now and you have the money to buy the next XBox that'll come to the market in the next few years, get the 360.
If you want a console that'll last for a good ten years in your household or if you want to get the most out of your HDTV, get the PS3.