The introduction of the PS3 in March meant that the stage had been set: Microsoft and its Xbox 360, Nintendo and its Wii, and Sony with its Playstation 3 were ready to duke it out for market share.

Each machine pursues a different fundamental approach to gaming, yet there are also some commonalities: their online functionality. A closer look at the details reveals differing priorities, however.

"All three consoles come ready-delivered to go online," says Heiko Gogolin from the Hamburg-based computer game magazine GEE.

That said, each hardware maker has a different level of experience in the online sector, observed not least in terms of the refinement of its online functionality.

Microsoft for example has long years of online experience, so its Xbox Live online platform is also the most developed of the three, Gogolin notes.

The online games are easiest to set up on Microsoft's platform, Goglin says. Gamers can easily network with one another, and it's a snap to download game content. Unlike the competition, however, Microsoft also demands a price for its efforts: gamers looking to compete against one another online will need to shell out around 60 euros ($80) a year.

"Xbox Live is an online platform that stands for networking, for communication among gamers and friends," is how Microsoft's Felix Petzel describes the system. "In the future we'll even go yet another step further with Live Anywhere," Petzel says.

It will allow consoles not just to communicate with one another, but with cell phones and PCs as well. In a best case scenario PC and console players would be able to play against one another. Live Anywhere should be up and running sometime this spring.

Sony intends its Playstation Home to serve as a cost-free online service, says Guido Alt from Sony Computer Entertainment's Neu Isenburg office. Beyond the standard opportunities for surfing the web or online games, starting in autumn 2007 gamers will also have the option of meeting up with other players in a 3D world. "You can watch films together in a virtual cinema," says Alt.

"Nintendo's Wii console also offers an online mode, but it is still under development," Gogolin explains. The first title for head-to-head online game play is expected on May 25 with "Mario Strikers: Charged Football". Even so, the Wii concept is based more on communal game play in front of a television set rather than online competition.

For Stefan Gundelach, Nintendo's press spokesman at the Groaostheim office, his company's online offering is second to none.

"The Wii provides the entire family with a wide variety of entertainment, information and communications channels for online use," Gundelach says.

Nintendo will provide a more refined online system for the next generation of its consoles. But that shouldn't be taken as a sign of defeat for the current setup: "All three systems are definitely usable, none of them is poor. And all three support the key feature anyway: head-to-head online play," says Gundelach.