The PS4 vs Xbox One console war is in full force now, and the winner after the console release and Holiday sales appears to be Sony once again. Microsoft just destroyed its image with too many gamers before the launches.
Pre-release hype made Microsoft look indecisive, as they reversed policies and then reconfirmed those policies. Sony simply kept their mouths shut and let Microsoft shoot themselves in the foot.
PS4 sales proved about the same as the Xbox One at release time, both hampered by technical issues that mostly proved fixable. However, the Xbox One sales were based in 13 markets, while the PS4 sales were based only in the US and Canada. The UK has reported since then that the PlayStation 4 is selling much stronger than the Xbox One, and that puts the win in Sony’s pocket after the Holiday boom. The PS4 vs Xbox One score looks like a strong win for Sony in sales.
The next issue where Sony appears to be the clear winner is the ability to swap out the hard drive . While the PlayStation 4 was built to have it swapped out, the Xbox One takes some tinkering and hacking, which could easily take hours just to finish. Even then, there is no guarantee that you won’t make a mistake and brick the console trying. Microsoft clearly doesn’t want anyone swapping out the hard drive, which is bad for them. With Call of Duty: Ghosts weighing in at 43GB, and further games only going to get bigger, a 500GB hard drive just isn’t going to be big enough after a year or so. You will need more hard drive space if you plan on grabbing a lot of download deals.
PS4 Is The Fastest Selling Console In UK History, Dramatically Outpacing Xbox One http://t.co/1zWyI7eZmx via @forbes
— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) December 2, 2013
Sony once again pulls the win in the PS4 vs Xbox One console war.
Games need to be installed now, and the install time is another win in Sony’s pocket. Xbox One, even offline, takes several times as long to install the same game as the PlayStation 4. You could attribute this to a more powerful console, but Xbox One still has install times that aren’t any improvement over its predecessor. Combine that with the Xbox One’s need to update every game, and PS4 gamers will probably be past the intro tutorial at the very least before Xbone gamers can even start playing.
Sony’s PS4 thumps Xbox One with 250,000 sales in UK, most ever consoles sold in an opening weekend http://t.co/TEouffcydb via @CNETUK #ICYMI
— CNET (@CNET) December 3, 2013
The games themselves aren’t generally a win either way. Graphically the next gen games are about equal, with little difference between an upscaled 720p and 1080p. The only exclusives we have so far aren’t the best games we’ve seen. The Xbox One has Titanfall on its way … without a single-player option, alienating the lone wolf players. The PlayStation 4 has Flower , but that’s not technically a game. Just about all of the must-play games on either console can be played on consoles most of us already own. The PS4 vs Xbox One console war comes to a disappointing tie when it comes to the games themselves.
The PlayStation 4 is just a generally better console after most of the Holiday dust has settled.