360 Again Emerges Triumphant in Parental Control Test

Yet another examination of parental controls on the current crop of consoles has resulted in the Xbox 360 being labeled the best of the bunch.

A Game Informer editor created a scenario for his wife tasking her with adjusting parental controls for a pair of fictional teen boys on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. The wife was chosen because of her lack of hands on time with the game machines.

A sampling of the article’s commentary and grades for each console are featured below:

Xbox 360 – B+
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 interface was redesigned to make the system more accessible to non-gamers. Judging from how quickly my wife found the family settings, I’d say they succeeded.

Wii – B
The trickiest part for her was finding where the settings were grouped. From there, it was a pretty simple ride…

PlayStation 3 – C
The PlayStation 3’s controls were probably the trickiest for my wife to handle. They weren’t easy for her to find, and Sony’s way of handling restrictions is a little strange.

These results jibe with a similar test conducted by IGN earlier this year, which pitted the PS3 against the 360. In that case too, the IGN tester billed the 360 as easier to use and found the PS3’s numbering system confusing.
 

Thanks Andrew!