Buying Refurbished Console for Christmas?
 

The only game console we have is Wii. My kids are getting older and I thought maybe they would like a more sophisticated game experience. Our holiday budget is tighter than a nun's poop chute, but I've noticed that our local video game retailers are offering used consoles for a song. My questions are: do I buy refurbished? If so, would an XBox console be the smart buy over PS 3?

Any advice would be helpful.

You're taking a calculated risk buying pre-owned. The difference between refurbished and "used" is that the refurb unit has already had at least one component fail. While it is true that the failed component has been fixed/replaced, every other component in the unit is still used and thus has a shortened time before failure.

That being said, new console failure rates are high enough (when compared to used) and pre-owned prices low enough (when compared to new) that the risk is probably worth it. They're not designed to last for 10 years so even if you buy brand new, you probably won't get THAT much more life out of it.

On the 2nd question, how many kids do you have and how old are they?

The 360 has Kinect, which is great of kid games, but if your kids have outgrown the Wii, I'm not sure the Kinect will be a huge attraction for them. There's also the fact that if they want to play online, each one of them will have to have a Gold account, so if you have 3 or 4 kids, that could be a lot of extra money.

The biggest differentiator for the XBox is probably Live Arcade. There are hundreds of downloadable games on the XBox that aren't "hardcore" or "Blockbusters" but they're not "kiddie" either. There's a ton of fun games on Live Arcade.

14 yr old daughter (she LOVES Zelda Twilight Princess(Wii) BTW
10 yr old son

I would probably go with XBox. Best mix of games for all ages.

I love my PS3 and am totally glad I traded in my XBox but I've found the titles I'm playing now are completely inappropriate for my kids...

I'd even purchase a brand new slim PS2, it's affordable, great for kids and adults too, the games are more fun and dirt cheap. PS3 is great as well even if you get a used one but preferably a new console is better.

Wait till next Christmas, IMO. There's a chance the next Xbox and PS4 will be out and the current gen consoles will probably be going on Craigslist for cheap.

I just picked up a used PS3 from the pawn shop here for $120, it seems to be in great condition as well.

That's an interesting metaphor. Just how tight is a nun's poop chute? Is there somewhere you can do a comparison test between a nun's and, say, a porn star's? Are we talking young hot fantasy nun, or old wrinkled reality nun?

Do you have Zelda: Skyward Sword? (It's the new Zelda for the Wii) If no it's a great buy.