Is the Xbox 360 Worth It?

For the longest time, I've considered the Xbox 360 to be the best console of this generation. Better than the PS3. Better than the Wii. But lately some cracks have been starting to show in Microsoft's green armor. First it was that annual notice in my email:

Your subscription to Gold – 12 Month is scheduled to be automatically renewed on Saturday, September 15, 2012. Please retain a copy of this for your records...For $59.99 plus applicable taxes, your Xbox LIVE Gold membership takes your Xbox 360 online to play Kinect and controller games with friends wherever they are. 

So I have to pay another $60 to have the chance to play online with friends? That's funny, because it's free on the Playstation 3, it's free on personal computers, and it's free on Nintendo Wii. That's not to say all are created equal. Xbox LIVE is by far the better mousetrap, at least compared to its console counterparts. But is it worth $60 a year? I've now payed $240 over the last four years. I could buy another console with that money. Yet I stick with my gold membership so I can play with my friends online. And that's really the only thing that keeps me renewing my subscription; like a phone network, Xbox LIVE increases in usefulness the more people sign on.

Second was today's revelation when IGN released its list of the top 25 Xbox 360 games. Take a look at this list. Notice anything deeply disturbing? There are almost no exclusives. By my count only six of the 25 titles are Xbox exclusives. IGN makes a list of the 25 best games on a seven year old system, and only six are titles exclusive to that system. Finally, it hit me like a ton of bricks: so many of the games I cherish on the Xbox are available on PC or Playstation 3. That's not to say the true exclusives are bad: Halo and Gears of War are two of the better franchises of all time. Forza and Fable are also top-tier. But after those four it starts to get sketchy. Then I recalled this year's E3. Microsoft, which had the worst showing, spent close to 20 minutes showing Halo 4. And then what? A Gears of War teaser trailer and a bunch of third-party non-exclusives. Meanwhile Sony showed of God of War, The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls, etc. And there are others. The list of Playstation exclusives is massive compared to Xbox. Then there's Nintendo: Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, Donkey Kong, Star Fox, Pikmin, Mario Kart, Wii Sports, Animal Crossing, Paper Mario, Super Smash Bros, etc.

Just a few of many Nintendo exclusives. Most of the best games on Xbox 360 can be played on PS3 or PC.

So the question isn't "is the Xbox a dud?" It's definitely not. It has the best online network (albeit the most expensive), the best controller, a handful of great exclusive games -- Halo being the best -- and a robust Xbox LIVE arcade service. The question is: "if I could only purchase one system from this generation, would it be the Xbox 360?" And the answer has to be "no." Sony and Nintendo have better exclusives: this includes current software and also classic games available on the Playstation Store and Virtual Console. And they have free, however inferior, online matchmaking.

I love my Xbox. I value it so much it's the only console I brought with me overseas. But the more I think about it, the more I realize it's not the best console of the seventh generation; it might actually be the worst.