Tuesday 11 June 2013

XBOX ONE vs PS4: The Battle Begins

Today saw the opening of the big game consoles and gaming event know as E3 and the big names unveiled their new consoles.
First up were Sony with the new Playstation 4 followed by Microsoft unveiling the all singing all dancing Xbox One.
The first thing that was obvious was that contrary to Amazon's listing the price for this new console is £429.00.
For that price you get a Blu-Ray player, a TV player, a computer and a games console. All of which you get by paying an extra £30 to £40 per annum to access Xbox Live to enable players to go online.

The PS4 comes with Blu-Ray player but concentrates on games and gaming and will cost £349.00. Like the PS3 online comes free.

An aspect of the Xbox One that I don't like is a) some games will continue to play while a player is offline or asleep; and b) other players will be able to just jump into your game.

Early feedback seems to infer that the Xbox One has failed to galvanise the gaming public. As current figures show that over the last few months Xbox 360 sales which stands around 75 million sales have been overtaken by Sony's PS3 with 77 million sales (both figures are worldwide).

As a gamer my leaning is towards the PS4 and Sony hasn't given me the problems that Microsoft's 360 has, And do I want all the extra junk that comes with the Xbox One - I think it is obvious that I don't.
Nor do I think either console will compete against the growing 'app' craze amongst the young. The real gamers today grew up with, possibly, the PS One way back in the mists of time (15 to 20 years ago?) Though there are those who recall Atari, Sinclair, Commodore 64, Sega and early Nintendo.
Now, in modern times, the next generation has arrived.

Still, as I have always maintained there is nothing wrong with the Xbox 360 and the good news today is that it is not going to be abandoned. A new slimmer version is up for sale from £149.00 and Microsoft has plans to keep it going. We shall see but I suspect this will be so until the new Xbox One drops to an affordable price.

Now does that mean that there will be a 'Forza 5' for the 360?

(A new Part 2 added today Aug 5)

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