Both machines boast exactly the same performance here. No support X-Box can store 4 times the amount of textures with very little loss of quality through hardware compression. The PS2 will see a bigger performance hit than the X-Box. The X-Box blows the PS2 away here. The 8Gb hard drive offers 10ms access over the 300ms of the PS2's DVD drive.
Developers can store audio, textures, saves, etc. on the hard disk.
PS2 is aimed more towards becoming a home entertainment set-top box. No 3D positional audio has been around in PC games for while, developers will be familiar on X-Box. Future upgrade X-Box is fully equipped to handle broadband via Ethernet. PS2 will use an add-on module. Not planned A USB modem will be available at launch for the X-Box.