Here are more eye-opening juxtapositions between the last round of consoles and this one. Aeorpause has created a size comparison of major consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Among the surprises are that the PS3 is larger in every dimension than the original Xbox, which was widely criticized for its size, particularly in Japan. Even before seeing this chart, I thought that Wii’s diminutive size would be an advantage in kids’ smaller bedrooms. While the Wii is a bit thicker than Sony’s revised PS2 design, it’s still by far the smallest of the bunch.
Of course, the GameCube was the smallest and least expensive home console of its day and that didn’t translate into market leadership, but the differences seem far more profound in this round, not only in physical size but in Nintendo’s “Blue Ocean” approach. Furthermore, it’s a bit premature to criticize Sony too much; let’s see how the PS3’s power supply compares to the Xbox 360’s.