In simultaneous press conferences this afternoon, both Microsoft and Sony announced that their new videogame consoles, while very fast, technologically advanced, and capable of breathtaking graphics, will essentially be very similar in nature.

“They’re pretty much the same,” says Microsoft’s Bill Lectern. “I mean, sure, we’ll have Halo and they’ll probably have GTA for a while, but eventually we’ll get GTA, and you’ll be able to play Halo on PC, so it’s not that much of a difference. Basically they’ll just be the same thing.”

Both consoles also have uses beyond videogame playing, as well. “We’re playing HD, they’re playing HD,” says Sony’s Jill Arnold. “They will let you save media, and we’ll let you do it too. You can pretty much do the same things with both systems. Backwards compatible? Of course we’re going to do it, and so they’ll do it too. Really, it doesn’t matter which one you buy, because they’re both essentially the same piece of hardware.”

Which means that videogame enthusiasts won’t have a hard time choosing what to buy this holiday season. “You can go for whatever,” says Lectern. “Have you seen the screenshots for the new Project Gotham Racing? They look great, and you’ll only find that on Xbox 360. On the other hand, I saw a leaked picture of GTA, and that will only be on PS3. So it doesn’t really matter which one you buy. Either way you’ll be able to play really good looking games that you spent a ton of money on.”

And Arnold agrees. “We’re really excited about our new Cell technology, and our great traditions of design and ease of use. But have you seen that Xbox 360 controller? It looks good too, and very easy to use. I’m guessing either one will be a lot of fun.”

Lectern added, “Of course, once the new systems come out, the old systems will drop in price considerably. So you might not even have to buy a new one– there’s a lot of cheap games on PS2 that I haven’t even played yet. I guess the new ones aren’t even that big of a deal.”