PSN vs XBLA vs eShop

Time to get a bit of a console wars going (though please be civil everyone). Specifically though, let's play "compare the three console's download services"  

Which is your favourite/ which has got the most out of your wallet, and why?

I mostly use the Eshop. I'll use the Xbox arcade every once in awhile. I've never used the PSN because I don't have any Sony consoles that use it..

As for Nintendo, I'd say I'm "content" with their Eshop. There's definitely things that could be improved (download speeds, DLC purchases), but I definitely wouldn't call it awful. As for the games, it's fairly empty as of now. However, I feel good about the future of it for indie developers and others in general.. Probably the two games I'm most excited for are Shovel Knight and the AVGN game.

As for XBLA, I'm very pleased with what I've used of it so far. It has a nice game selection (As far as I can tell). Don't know what else to say about that. However, I'm not that excited for the One when it comes to indie games..

And again, I've never used PSN, so I can't comment on it..

Billy Bob wrote:I mostly use the Eshop. I'll use the Xbox arcade every once in awhile. I've never used the PSN because I don't have any Sony consoles that use it..

As for Nintendo, I'd say I'm "content" with their Eshop. There's definitely things that could be improved (download speeds, DLC purchases), but I definitely wouldn't call it awful. As for the games, it's fairly empty as of now. However, I feel good about the future of it for indie developers and others in general.. Probably the two games I'm most excited for are Shovel Knight and the AVGN game.

As for XBLA, I'm very pleased with what I've used of it so far. It has a nice game selection (As far as I can tell). Don't know what else to say about that. However, I'm not that excited for the One when it comes to indie games..

And again, I've never used PSN, so I can't comment on it..

The DLC thing is a killer for me with Nintendo and the eShop. I like buying DLC for my favourite games, and it is a clunky as sin process with games like Warriors Orochi. The actual service is, I agree, adequate, but I must say that the fact that games are tied to hardware, rather than accounts, makes hardware failure a genuine problem for Nintendo's customers.

I don't use the XBLA much at all - in fact I've never put any money on to it. Not really any reason, I just use the PSN for most everything.

PSN - PSPlus, for a start, is impossibly good value. But looking beyond that - PSN offers cross-buy allowing people to buy games across PS3 and Vita (and transfer savegames), and Cloud saves means I'm not worried in the slightest should my console die. For these reasons (plus the massive indie push by Sony), I find myself using PSN the most.

Personally, it would be PSN>eShop>XBLA.

Even if we pretend PlayStation Plus doesn't exist, PSN still leads the pack by a longshot. For starters, there's a fantastic range of classics, indie games, and retail titles to pick from. I also love that the service is contains everything related to Sony's gaming platforms. Vita, PSP, PS3, PS4 - it's all there and all the information can be viewed on any one device. Beyond that, I just appreciate the way Sony gives consumers great freedom with digital copies. If you wanted to own, say, Punch-Out on Wii, 3DS, and Wii U, that would be three separate $5 transactions. PSN gives you five potential "copies" for the price of one, which can then be split them between completely different systems. I'd say the service goes out of its way to make consumers feel at ease.

I enjoy both eShops but feel they could be handled far better. Neither one has the lineage of PSN given that the 3DS has only been around for 2~ years and the shops are separated. It's also going to take a lot of time for the Wii U to regain the Wii's Virtual Console library, let alone add "new" retro games. This will improve in time, but I prefer the way PSN added Vita support for PS1 classics in a flurry rather than spreading it out with a couple titles a week. My bigger beef is with the way purchases are tied to the console and not to your Nintendo ID. I recall reading somewhere that this was being implemented "soon" and I would certainly enjoy the comfort of knowing that if my console kicks the bucket I can re-download everything without a hassle (particularly the retail games).

Xbox Live Arcade has some rather solid titles on it. Problem is...I just don't touch the 360 these days. In fact, I can't recall turning the console on since like Jet Set Radio in September. Hard to give a decent perspective on the service with that in mind.

Yes, that cross-buy thing really, really annoys me with Nintendo's service. I got Balloon Fight as a freebie as a 3DS ambassador for instance, but why did I need to buy it again on the Wii U?With my PSOne games I can play them on my Vita, my PSP or my PS3 without any such restrictions, and with newer PSN games, I can transfer my saves back and forth in real time.

That, to me, is the ONLY legitimate way to go if a company is going to offer the same game on multiple devices that it's selling. Even Apple does that with iPhone and iPad Universal Apps.

XBLA was number one for the longest time, bar none, but now PSN is getting the better exclusives while most games are releasing on both platforms...actually, that sums up the entire Xbox 360 life-cycle.

eshop is where most of my money is going now

I spend most of my money on the PSN - generally it seems like they have been deals and games overall. The overall service? I like how much faster the Xbox shop is, and also how much quicker the download speeds are compared to PSN. It's a better store system. The eShop gets the least use out of me, but so do my Nintendo consoles.

Chalgyr wrote:I spend most of my money on the PSN - generally it seems like they have been deals and games overall. The overall service? I like how much faster the Xbox shop is, and also how much quicker the download speeds are compared to PSN. It's a better store system. The eShop gets the least use out of me, but so do my Nintendo consoles.

Yes, the speed is the major (only?) fault of the PSN... I would hope with the next gen and Sony's extra push into Cloud the speeds draw much closer together.

Before I had a PS3, I used the Xbox Live Arcade service a lot. It had a ton of great exclusives, especially with the Summer of Arcade deals. I prob. have 50+ games on it.

However, the PS3 has been killing it with the downloadable games as of late, and while I don't have on yet, it's nice that I already have a few Vita games thanks to cross-buy.

Don't have a Wii U, never liked the download services on the original Wii. The 3DS eShop is good, I have a good amount of games on there.

PSN is where most my money goes...use to buy rock band songs almost every week

jim269 wrote:PSN is where most my money goes...use to buy rock band songs almost every week

You must have been pretty peeved that they stopped releasing new ones  

Well, I will be nabbing something or several somethings on eShop soon, now that I got my $30 credit for picking up SMT4 and FEA and redeeming that code. I just don't know what to nab yet. :p

MattS wrote:

jim269 wrote:PSN is where most my money goes...use to buy rock band songs almost every week

You must have been pretty peeved that they stopped releasing new ones  

what peeved me off more was that xbox will keep getting rock band network songs and PS gets nothing at all

jim269 wrote:

MattS wrote:

jim269 wrote:PSN is where most my money goes...use to buy rock band songs almost every week

You must have been pretty peeved that they stopped releasing new ones  

what peeved me off more was that xbox will keep getting rock band network songs and PS gets nothing at all

Yeah PS3 and Wii (but who plays Rock Band on Wii, am I right?) got the shaft when it comes to Rock Band. Luckily, my friend (Segisaurus on the forums) has like 700+ Rock Band songs, so we keep busy at parties

Shaan Joshi wrote:

jim269 wrote:

MattS wrote:

jim269 wrote:PSN is where most my money goes...use to buy rock band songs almost every week

You must have been pretty peeved that they stopped releasing new ones  

what peeved me off more was that xbox will keep getting rock band network songs and PS gets nothing at all

Yeah PS3 and Wii (but who plays Rock Band on Wii, am I right?) got the shaft when it comes to Rock Band. Luckily, my friend (Segisaurus on the forums) has like 700+ Rock Band songs, so we keep busy at parties

im around 700 songs harmonix seems to love the xbox but what they did made me like them less as a company