All the price comparisons between the PS3 and the Xbox 360 that I’ve seen, and done, have only compared one or two configurations based on the capabilities of the respective systems. I thought I’d change things around this time, and do several price comparisons, based on what the owners’ priorities are.

I’m going to assume a couple things. One, because there’s a USB port on the PS3 and on the PS3 controller, and because Sony has said that this is the method used to charge the batteries in the controller, I’ll assume that a USB cable is included in the box. Sony wouldn’t ship a console with a controller that can’t be charged. That said, just in case, I looked up the price of a 6′ USB cable with a mini connector on one end, and found several for less than $5 at Amazon. So I’ll assume the cost of a USB/charger cable for the PS3 is negligible. Two. I’ll assume the price of the HD DVD add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 is $200. Microsoft hasn’t announced the price yet, but $200 seems to be the going rate. As well, I will indicate which PS3 I chose or which Xbox 360 I chose solely by price. So be on your toes! ($600 and $500 for PS3, $400 and $300 for Xbox 360). I’ll assume that playing games will require the ability to save progress – either a memory card or HDD must be present to use the machine as a gaming machine. I don’t know if the PS3 will include a headset, and I couldn’t find the Microsoft one at Amazon, so I’ll assume a cost of $20.

Last, I’ll assume the following prices for the following peripherals, found at Amazon. I’m going to round to the nearest dollar, for my sanity’s sake.

Play and Charge Kit: $18.42 ($18)
64MB Xbox 360 Memory Unit: $39.92 ($40)
Xbox 360 Live 12 Month Gold Card: $49.82 ($50)
Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter: $99.92 ($100)
Sandisk 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader/Writer: $13.95 ($14)

Here are the configurations I chose. Please tell me if I missed any.

Configuration A – Equalization

First off, I’ll do the old standby: take a premium PS3 and a premium Xbox 360, and try to make them as similar as possible:

PS3: $600
Headset: $20

Xbox 360: $400
Play & Charge: $18
Xbox Live Gold: $50
Wireless: $100
Memory Card Reader: $14
HD DVD: $200

Sony: $620, Microsoft: $782

Advantage: Sony

Configuration B – HD Movie Watching

This configuration is for those people that are interested in watching HD movies. Because Microsoft doesn’t support HDMI, I will assume HDMI is not needed. Besides, it’s been shown that 1080i and 1080p are equivalent for the purposes of watching an HD movie, so HDMI is a non-issue for both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 until the ICT starts being used. When ICT starts being used, then HDMI will be required. Actually, I’ll do both scenarios.

B.1 Pre-ICT:

PS3: $500

Xbox 360: $300
HD DVD: $200

Sony: $500, Microsoft: $500

Tie

B.2 Post-ICT:

PS3: $600

Xbox 360: Can’t do it!

Sony: $600, Microsoft: Default

Advantage: Sony

Configuration C: Bare Minimum to Play Games

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but I’ll explain anyway. What’s the bare minimum you need to play games? What do you need to buy?

PS3: $500

Xbox 360: $300
Memory Card: $40

Sony: $500, Microsoft: $340

Advantage: Microsoft

Configuration D: Big Gamer

I choose the lower-end PS3 in this case because there’s no advantage for the high-end one when gaming. I chose the high-end Xbox 360 because of its HDD, which can be used to cache games, speeding up performance. Also required for Xbox Live.

PS3: $500
Headset: $20

Xbox 360: $400
Play & Charge: $18
Xbox Live Gold: $50

Sony: $520, Microsoft: $468

Advantage: Microsoft

Summary

So the results are two for Sony, two for Microsoft, and a tie. That makes it an all-around tie. For the Big Gamer configuration, the price difference is only $52. Microsoft’s real advantage is for the Bare Minimum Gameplayer. There the difference is $160. To be totally honest, I knew that the PS3 would fare well in this comparison article. I just didn’t realize how well it would fare. Only in one of the five cases does the Xbox 360 hold a clear advantage in price.

Thoughts?