Xboxlive is $15 a month, not $50. That comes out to $180 a year.
It's ironic that the PS3's most touted feature is also one of its weak points. The ability to play Blueray disks may have increased the potential size of games that can be played on the system and being able to play blueray movies isn't a bad thing, but neither of these 2 advantages has overcome the associated negatives; that being that few games have taken advantage of the increased capacity, and those that have typically require lengthy install times and the little caveat that high definition movies hasn't really caught on yet as the DVD still remains the king of retail digital media. I certainly think in the future the Blueray feature will help sales of the system, but as it stands today, it really isn't as magical as people make it out to be.
People mock the complete failure of the HDDVDs and Microsoft's decision to back them, however their other decision; to sell the HDDVD player as an addition and not as part of the system, reduced the overall cost of the basic system and turned out to be a wise move as the consoles weren't later invalidated by it's failure.
Several independent sources have rated the graphics and performance of games available on both consoles and what little difference they found between two systems could easily pass as design choices, and not a result of system limitations. As I have said before, neither console really pushes the boundaries of existing technology and infact, the inherent power and implied need to create visually stunning games for the "nextgen" consoles has put immense unnecessary strains on developers.
I find it hilarious that many of the small titles that can be found in the online marketplaces of both consoles often have better, more interesting gameplay than many AAA titles however that is another issue all together.
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