I have never owned a console, nor do I plan on owning one. Here's the conventional wisdom, though:
PS3 is expensive and will have serious supply issues through the end of the year. If you're in the US, want a PS3, and don't want to wait in line/play lotteries/pay through the nose, expect February 2007 to be the time you can walk into a shop and pick one up.
Blu-Ray currently supports 25 GB discs. Expectation is for 50 GB dual-layer discs soon. Dual-layer DVDs can carry about 8 Gigs.
The lack of blue diodes for the lasers in the drives is one of the main constraints on PS3 production.
Microsoft is developing an external HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360.
HD-DVD is the other blue-laser HD standard, and current reviews put both products at equal video quality. HD-DVD had a boost out of the gate since, A) it's similar enough to DVD that DVD asssembly lines could be used and B) Sony lost a lot of time bickering over DRM schemes. HD-DVD's drawback is that it doesn't carry as much data as a Blu-Ray disc (only 25 Gigs or something)
You'd think this XBOX/HD-DVD addon would be for movies only, and the plan would be to sell an XBX360/HD-DVD bundle for the same price as the PS3 at PS3 release. I suspect there might be a surprise here too: then you'd forget the little note that Toshiba announced recently the creation of hybrid DVD/HD-DVD discs, with a single DVD layer (4.1 GB) and 2 HD-DVD layers (25 GB). If microsoft installs these puppies, they can maintain backward compatibility while allowing all that bonus HD content (which, let's face it, is gonna be a bunch of full motion video anyway).
Reports on XB0X 360 vs. PS3 games are that the end result is pretty much the same. PS3's impressive Cell Architecture may be able to give much higher performance, but the codemonkeys haven't figured out how to squeeze it. The same could be said (to a lesser degree) about the Xbox 360's Triple PPC architecture.
In addition, Microsoft's Developer support has been noted as far superior to Sony's, which suggest that developer costs for XBOX 360 games are much less.
Sony will be launching an online service with the PS3, but the details are sketchy. The XBOX 360's service has generally been well received.
XBOX 360 has millions of consoles in use worldwide. Sony is betting that the current PS2 owners will maintain their loyalty to the PS3.
If you understand the console market like a triangle, with Hardware, Software and the User at the corners, Sony is approaching with a focus on Hardware -- they have by all accounts the most ambitious and complicated hardware out there. Microsoft concentrates on the software: the hardware is interesting, but the developer kits, online services, and the acquisition of game titles shows where their strength is.
What about the user?
Well, he's playing Madden on a Nintendo Wii. Graphics be damned, I want to use that controller to drop back for a pass, throw the ball downfield, make a fingertip grab, real it in, and stiffarm the fool who tries to stop me.
