To Whom It May Concern,

This letter is to inform you that I have made the decision to purchase a Playstation 3 video game console. It should be known that your company drove me to do so, and let me explain why.

First of all, I should probably explain my video gaming history as a whole. I have never been a "casual" gaming enthusiast. For as long as I can remember, I have always had at least one video game console at a time, and this neglects the idea of any handheld systems I ever had in my possession. It began, like many, with the Nintendo Entertainment System, so long ago. A few years after, I received a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and my life was forever changed. Around the same time, I received a Sega Genesis and a Sega CD, yet I played my Super Nintendo daily, as I was never impressed with anything that my Sega products provided. My SNES was my favorite toy for so many years, until it became obsolete and the Nintendo 64 was released.

A few years after the Nintendo 64 was released, I had finally saved up enough money from my part-time job and purchased one with my own money. I played the N64 daily, but it never held my heart like my SNES had. Shortly after, the Sony Playstation was released, and yet again I bought myself a new system. It was at this point my bonds with Nintendo were broken, and I discovered a new love.

This new system provided games that were geared more towards my demographic at the time, and I think that had a lot to do with my broken ties with Nintendo as a whole. Not to mention all of my friends had Playstations, so bringing games back and forth to each other's houses was easy to do. We would trade games for a week or so at a time, and would master them all before returning them. It was the end all system. So we thought.

Sony introduced the Playstation 2 a few years later, and the response, as I'm sure you know, was outrageous. Third-party games flooded the market, and a Playstation 2 owner had the world at their fingertips. I probably owned close to 40+ games throughout the time I owned my PS2, and I never regretted playing the next. I was a slave to Sony, and I knew it. And I didn't care.

I'm told you, Microsoft, released a console around this time, too. The XBOX, the "giant black brick with a stupid name," was unnecessary to me or my friends. We had no need for it. We had a PS2.

You may be beginning to wonder how your company drove me away. Let me explain..

I held onto my PS2 for many years, until the current generation of consoles was introduced. I watched the battle between you and Sony and Nintendo wage on for years before I finally settled on which next-gen console to buy. Nintendo's Wii was out of the question. If I had wanted to sit around playing a majority of children's games, I would have picked up one of my niece's educational V-Tech toys. It was down to Microsoft v. Sony, XBOX360 v. PS3.

Ironically, I separated myself from the legacy Sony had created and bought an XBOX360.

I couldn't tell you why I bought it at the time. Maybe it was the store clerk who nudged me in that direction. Maybe it was a couple of the 360-exclusive games that caught my attention. Either way, I forked out my hard-earned cash and bought it.

And for a while, I was happy. There were many things that I was impressed with, and so over time, I was convinced that I had made the right decision. The fact that your games were pretty abysmal as far as content was concerned, and the notion that I was forced to pump out countless dollars to play online with my friends was kind of upsetting, and I eventually got to the point where I couldn't afford to play online at all, but I was sure I had made the right decision. Soon, however, things began to change.

About 11 months after owning my 360, a strange thing occured. One night I was playing with my friends, and the game began to make strange sounds and then froze. We reset the 360, and upon reboot, a single blinking red light appeared at the bottom of the console, followed by a strange error message on the screen. We let the 360 sit for a bit, and turned it back on an hour or so later, only to find things were back to normal, and we resumed playing. No more than 3 days later, I received the "Red Ring of Death," a phrase I'm sure your company is all too familiar with.

As I had only a month left on my warranty, I called customer service immediately, spent far too long on the phone with a gentleman that could barely speak English (who clearly read off of a cue card, I might add) and filed a repair order. Two days later, I sent off my console with utmost anxiety, knowing that for a while, we would all be without our beloved video gaming entertainment. THREE WEEKS LATER, I finally received my 360, and as I was quite eager to play it, I plugged it in right away. No more than 30 minutes later, a familiar blinking red light appeared, followed by an equally familiar error message. 30 MINUTES LATER.

I immediately packed up all of my 360 equipment, games, and accessories, and sold them all the next day.

This was about 8 months ago, and I haven't looked back since. There are too many upcoming titles that I have a strong desire to play, but based on my experiences, it certainly won't be on any Microsoft products. I never should have betrayed my loyalty to Sony, a company that has never once given me a reason to complain. So, as it stands, I will GLADLY hand over my hard-earned money to your rival counterpart.

Thanks for all you've done for me, Microsoft.

With Love,

wagepeace

My fiancee and I just moved into a new townhouse, and as we were unpacking, she pulled out a mint-freaking-gamecube.. memory card, connections, controller...the works, in the box.

NO WAY. I didn't even know she had it.

Since then, I've gotten a few games... Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. I figured it was high time for me to catch up on some gems that I never played. I always had a PS2 during the last-gen hype, so the GC was completely foreign to me. I'm hooked.

Now I've just got to play the Resident Evil remakes and I can die a happy man. (RE is my favorite series of all time, and yet I never played the updated RE1 remake OR Zero.) That and Zelda: OoT MQ, and maybe Wind Waker, if someone can convince me it's not a kiddy version of Zelda.

It's like Christmas around here.

1992.