The Xbox and the PS2 both have karaoke related products in their holiday lineups.
Karaoke Revolution for the PS2.
and Xbox Music Mixer for the, uh, Xbox.
Both games are bundled with microphones.
The PS2 offering is an actual game, where a “real time interactive audience” will react to pitch and rhythm. It’s virtual American Idol.
However, the Xbox offering actually allows you to choose your songs, purchase them online, and then use your PC to transfer them over to your Xbox. If you’ve already got an Xbox, and want a karaoke player, then it’s your best bet. The only downfall is paying $2 a song. But, having listened to the samples, they are using fairly good bootlegs of the original artist recordings. The catalog has over 20,000 songs, and when you download it, it’s a 1.03 MB text file.
It seems like the Xbox software is a little more exciting, considering you can pick what you want. Without a hard drive, the PS2 is left to its selection of songs on the disc.