Recent data provided by Nielsen suggest that the most played gaming console of 2008 isn’t the Wii, Xbox or PS3, but the rather old Playstation 2. The figures are pretty outstanding as the Playstation 2 is way in front of the more modern consoles, having 31.7 percent of the total time played.

 The Xbox 360 came in second place with 17.2 percent of total time played and the Wii came in with a surprisingly small 13.4 percent. The latest Playstation, the PS3, came in last with just 7.3 percent.

An Xbox 360 starts at $199.99 but a full power system is $399.99. Neither model comes with a pre-packaged game. The Xbox stands out through it recently updated software, called the Xbox Live Experience. One of the most talked about features on the Xbox Live Experience is users’ ability to directly stream movies from Netflix.

Playstation 3 starts at $399.99 for an 80GB model, the 160GB model is $499.99, but neither this console comes equipped with a game to play. PS3 sales haven’t been as fantastic as people from Sony wanted, as blu-ray is still a pretty unknown format on the market, and because of the high expectations in graphics, games for the PS3 take so long to be released.

 Nintendo’s Wii is the best selling console right now, and it deserves this title.  For $249.99 you get a system and five games included on a Wii Sports pack in disc.

Nielsen also crowned World Of Warcraft the most played game of 2008, closely followed by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Halo 2.