QUESTION 4: IS ONLINE GAMING IMPORTANT

This tends to be one of the hottest topics between gamers these days and also helps to sell many games including the FPS and racing genres.

For the Wii online gaming is non existent as of yet but is promised in the near future. However there is wireless networking built in so you can use the consoles built-in internet browser to surf the web. You can also email other computers or other Wii consoles.

As for the XBOX 360 there is the Live service available for a monthly fee. Everyone who buys an XBOX 360 get a silver membership free and has the option at any time to upgrade to a Gold membership which allows online gaming and voice chat. The service is quite dependable.

The PS3 has the PlayStation Network or PSN for short. The PSN is in early stages of development there are a few things to on which to comment. The PSN is quite dependable when playing online but the hard part is finding people to play with. There are not a lot of people with PS3s right now but if you are playing Resistance: Fall of Man you won't have a hard time find people to play with.