[quote]Particularly Xbox Live, which is a very slick and well-controlled online gaming environment[/quote] Are you sure you actually played online games on PC or just played some minefield/solitaire? Xbox Live is a joke. It makes you pay for all the services you can get free on PC gaming, plus it has no option for running a dedicated server. That means is that in every Xbox Live match the host will be another player, and that host will have 0 ping advantage. And because of the hardware restriction (being Xbox 360) larger matches make this advantage insanely retarded and some team sizes are simply not even possible. Consoles offer great spec for price and are very simple/user friendly to use, but seriously know your facts before you compare stuff.