IGN apparently granted the PS3 the noble title of Best Console of the Year.

The reason?

IGN feels that - of the two major consoles released in 2006 - the PS3 is the most advanced in terms of hardware, and will therefore have the most potential for improvement. IGN believes that - on account of most consoles starting off slow - the PS3 is merely experiencing their post-launch lag of good titles before things really pick up. Comparisons are often made to the XBox 360.

You would be willing to swallow this tripe. If you were mentally retarded.

The PS3 bears no similarity to the XBox 360. While the systems are both power houses, the XBox 360 is actually operating off of a logical marketing plan. Microsoft knew that their system was more pricey than the competition was likely to be. They also knew that it was worth it. And so - when it came time to throw down money for a system - people poured into stores nation-wide to reserve or buy an XBox 360.

And what they received was worth the coin they handed over. The XBox Live Service exists as the ivory model of what an online gaming service should - nay, must - be in order to succeed. The console opened up with several successful titles, including the next-gen versions of games that received less than savory releases on the Playstation 2.

And frankly, the XBox 360 was sold out in stores during the holiday season. Whereas the PS3 was - and still is - available in most retail outlets, while the Wii (and occasionally the 360) are scarce. People are not fond of the price of the PS3, and the lack of any truly defining features for the system are causing people to look elsewhere.

Why would you not? The Wii offers an innovative gaming experience that is engaging, and extremely enjoyable in groups. Their online offerings - in the way of the Virtual Console - are extremely appetizing, as it gives dedicated gamers the opportunity to delve into the archives of Nintendo to find the hidden treasures within. Soon, I’ll be able to play Kid Icarus for the first time. And I’ll be able to play it properly. Gamers can revisit the gems of the golden years through the Virtual Console.

On the XBox 360, you are met with more mature games, and a lot of the high-end titles like Oblivion, Grand Theft Auto IV, Guitar Hero II, and Metal Gear Solid 4. Titles that were originally found on Sony systems are migrating - or, at the very least - spawning children on the neighbouring XBox 360. From a simple economic perspective, why spend 700 bucks to play Grand Theft Auto IV when you can pay 400? Will the graphics really look that much better on the average person’s modest 27” CRT television set? Because, not all of us have 108” Sharp LCDs.

The most offensive thing about the PS3 is the arrogance with which Sony has flaunted it in our faces. Here, they hold a glossy obsidian block of pure graphical processing power. Of course, it is literally worth its weight (and girth) in gold. This is so, because that is what the MSRP has been set at. Believe it. In some factory somewhere, they have small, gold-grubbing executives sitting before a giant scale, piling gold nuggets in a hanging basket until the PS3 on the opposite side has been balanced.

Kutaragi’s statements about how the PS3 should cost more than it currently does is even more offensive. It is as if Sony is intentionally marketing the system to no one. Or, perhaps they have an ingenious strategy that involves obese hedonists living on their own private islands along the Pacific Rim who have the money to purchase a PS3 and develop their own games.

Because God knows it is now too expensive to develop for the PS3 without padding your pockets with a little dough from a simultaneous XBox 360 release.

However, when you get right down to it, the reason that the PS3 should not have one exists in the simplest stated criteria. The PS3 won because - as a machine - it has the most potential. Well, then let it be the best console of 2007.

As far as I am concerned, 2006 belongs to the Wii. And if we go to gaming platforms in general, it definitely belongs to the DS. Nintendo executives are rolling in giant pools of money with diamond encrusted buoy lines thanks to that strange little system.