For the record, there are non-Microsoft, general purpose wireless adaptors out there which cost much less and work just as well with the Xbox 360.

As somebody who keeps his Xbox near his router, the idea of paying for a wireless adaptor as part of the console package when I will never use it is a little ridiculous to me. I prefer to get the full speed of the broadband I pay for rather than the diluted, interference-prone wireless connection others use, and even if my Xbox wasn't next to my router I'd have happily ran a cable across the house instead.

But for those who want wireless, the option is there for them - even if Microsoft's own offering is a little on the dear side. But as I said, there are alternatives to Microsoft's hardware that will do the same job as well, if not better, while costing less.

The only real rip-off here is with the hard drive, for which you have only two options - buy Microsoft's ridiculously expensive (seriously, in an age where you can get hundreds of gigs for less than a hundred quid, charging so much for such small drives is criminal) hard drives, or mod your console and therefore be in breach of the EULA. This isn't so much of an option if you value your LIVE account.

As for the rest of the peripherals on offer for the 360, it's really irrelevant. The HD-DVD drive is defunct, the play and charge kit is reasonably cheap and there are non-Microsoft versions for this as well, the Messenger keypad is ridiculously expensive but rather unnecessary for anybody with a headset, and extra joypads, I think at least, are priced reasonably. I don't even remember what the other add-ons are, so I can't imagine they are too important.

Probably has something to do with the fact that mums and grans have stopped buying games as Christmas presents...

The death of the Dreamcast had as much to do with Sega's screw ups and Sony's strategy as anything. Not that it's particularly relevant here - this generation of consoles is perhaps the most competitive, least clear-cut of all generations. None of them are exactly 'suffering' and none of them will. If you think that continuously praising the PS3 and slagging off the Xbox 360 on a web forum is going to change anything around the world, then perhaps you need to boot up that DC a little more often.

What's the... erm... PS3 version of an 'Xbot' again (whatever that means)? Seriously, this is like watching priests from two different religions arguing with each other about why the other is biased.

Why is it even important to you? Let Sony and Microsoft make all the business decisions - after all, if you're not a shareholder, it doesn't really impact your life whichever way the sales go. Personally I bought my Xbox 360 because it had games which fit my tastes better, the price had nothing to do with it and I was well aware of the reliability problems it had. While people such as yourself are trying to argue, for no apparent reason, about which one is best, myself and others are busy actually enjoying their consoles. Isn't that why you shelled out hundreds of quid for one?

Bioware making an MMORPG. Such wasted talent...