It’s about time that people spend some money for Christmas gifts. Over the years, consoles are one of the most recurring gifts. Of course, they are not cheap, but latest consoles are usable for about four or five years, which increase its value.

Since the ’70s, consoles were still in its most primitive state, such as the legendary Atari, followed by Nintendo NES and Sega Master System but not until PlayStation (PSX), gaming consoles were become a common household device, creating one of the most lucrative home entertainment market, far exceeding home movies in some cases. For example, Call Of Duty: Black Ops that is available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS has broken all records and sales forecasts.

But the real question is whether consoles can still become your favored gift for this Christmas? Luckily yes! Gaming consoles now have many new accessories that make them much more interesting than when they were launched.

Consoles

Nintendo Wii

Nintendo has repeatedly revolutionized the world of gaming consoles, it started with classics such as Color TV Game, NES and Gameboy, and now Nintendo Wii is still capable in enthralling many gamers. It is undeniable that since NES, Nintendo seemed to have mediocre market performance when compared with PlayStation and Xbox. But Nintendo’s strong point seems to lie on its innovative gameplay, not graphics. For example, Wii has revolutionized the video game industry with its gaming system using a wireless controller for controlling the game, allowing fluid gameplay in almost every way. With Wii Fit, Nintendo had established a new segment called as active gameplay, which allow you to have an exercise or yoga while playing games. Wii was a favorite gift for the last few Christmas and with its innovative accessories, Nintendo Wii is still a good choice for Christmas gift this year.

PlayStation 3

Undoubtedly one of the big winners in the gaming consoles industry over the past two years. Players who are always looking for better graphics will find PlayStation 3 attractive, in fact, each year PlayStation 3 graphics processor are updated. PlayStation 3 users can now buy a new accessory called the PlayStation Move, which is very similar with Wii Remote, but in some cases are much more accurate. There really is no big difference, both serve the same purpose, that is to play your games without causing sore fingers, to interact more with game characters and to have a more personal experience with games. This Christmas you should buy ,160 GB slim, 250 GB Slim and 320 GB slim models, which offer new features compared to previous Playstation 3 models, such as slimmer form factor, BRAVIA Sync XMB control (CEC) and DTS-HD Master & Audio Dolby TrueHD.

Xbox 360

Microsoft has spent more time with its seventh-generation gaming console than the competitors. Xbox 360 was released in November 2005, a year before Nintendo Wii and Sony’s Playstation 3. There is an ongoing debate whether Xbox 360 has better graphic quality than PlayStation 3, but in this case, you won’t see big differences in visual appearance. In 2010, Microsoft has launched Kinect, which could be considered as the next revolution in gameplay. The first breakthrough was the Wii Remote and now with Kinect, finally you can have a controller-free gameplay, by combining gestures, speech and interactions with objects and images. Kinect will be no doubt popular in countries where it is currently on sale; it is very innovative and really fun to play with family or friends. If Kinect is your primary reason for buying Xbox 360 as Christmas gift, make sure you get the S Model, as earlier models are no longer in production.

Handheld Consoles

As always smaller screens mean worse graphics, but these portable game consoles have done enough to prevent our boredom when we are away from home. The market for handheld video games is much smaller, but just like their bigger brethrens, there are many varieties.

Nintendo DS

It is one of the portable gaming queens, no doubt it presents a few minor drawbacks, such as, lower graphics quality and unimaginative hardware design. Even so, Nintendo DS has managed to lure many die-hard fans.

Nintendo DS is available in several versions and now the DSi XL version comes with larger screens. A new version called as Nintendo 3DS, will be released in 2011, which support 3D technology without glasses. But, can a handheld game console without 3D glasses be a bestseller? Considering passions shown by present Nintendo DS users, there is a good possibility that it can.

PSP

Sony introduced PSP in October 2004, it was an amazing handheld gaming console that has generated a lot of interest. PSP introduced something unique called UMD discs, a CD format that is enclosed in a plastic housing. This format does not offer anything new, it just a media format that was created solely to prevent game piracy.

The reality is that no matter what type of media format that you develop, provided there is a way to clone the contents, somehow, some resourceful people will be able to spread it illegally. That’s exactly what happened. We never see such a huge movement in which developers around the world came together to find vulnerabilities in PSP software to manipulate the hardware. This resulted in a constant war between Sony and programmers, with firmware patches being released almost every month. A battle that Sony finally won, but at the expense of the majority of PSP players left the platform. Sony tried to fix this issue with the launch of cheaper games and the new PSP Go.

iPod Touch and iPhone

And that was when everything changed, the arrival of the iPhone has changed the portable gaming market in a totally unexpected way. Apple says the iPod Touch is increasingly become a handheld console instead of a portable music player, one fact that Nintendo and Sony should address soon. At this moment there are plenty of games to choose from. Games in App Store are relatively more affordable than on other portable consoles, so it is a good idea to include a few games as a part of your gift. Obviously, iPod Touch 4^th generation or iPhone 4 should be your choice, if you want to buy them as gift.

Conclusion

There is everything for everyone in gaming industry, from all colors, prices and sizes. The most important thing is, you need to be sure that your gift can entertain and bring more happiness on someone you care about.