Allegiances... bah

I had an NES when I was little, but eventually sold it and bought a Sega Genesis. The year the N64 came out I received one for my birthday. In 2001 I got a GameCube for Christmas. I've even had a few iterations of the GameBoy line through the years. I've long considered myself a Nintendo man, despite those few years I spent with Sonic's little black box and the fact I own all three major consoles of this generation. Something's comforting about having a favorite, I guess. But as I strive to be more objective in life, and with the prospect of getting an Xbox 360 soon, I have begun to reconsider my allegiances. Does putting Nintendo ahead of Sony and Microsoft really mean anything?

Quite simply no. The same goes with putting any company ahead of another. I think it's time I call off any brand biases I've had, and I recommend you do the same. While I generally consider Nintendo to make the best first party software, diluting myself into thinking that translates into the best hardware or anything else is pretty ridiculous. And ruling out the purchase or desire to own another brand's product because it's not Nintendo is being corporately racist. I've been a pretty good customer for Nintendo over the years, as previously mentioned, but I don't owe them anything.

I/we don't owe anybody anything. You may have had a PS1 and currently own a PS2. You may have been supremely happy with the years you've spent with the world's most popular consoles. But in consumerism track records like that shouldn't make the decision to hold out only for a PS3 and not consider Nintendo or Microsoft for you. That's brainwashing. And if this is what you're planning then the corporations and their ad agencies have done their jobs well.

My desire for an Xbox 360 stems mostly from its availability. If all three next generation consoles were available right now I couldn't say which one I'd choose without first putting a lot of thought into it. I can say that the thought I would put into it would involve features, software line-ups, how promising the future looks, etc., and having nothing to do with who made it.