And it’s finally that time again. The year when the current-gen consoles, having faithfully served us gamers for seven long years, finally give way to the next iteration of gaming behemoths. And going by the initial specs and claims, both these consoles are readying themselves for a massive showdown come the Holiday Season.
The PlayStation vs XBOX rivalry has been one of the most celebrated and hotly debated ones in the gaming industry. With Microsoft and Sony going head to head again later this year, the time is ripe to bring up this debate once again.
Comparing the Previous Generation: Where do they stand?
With the curtains drawing on PS4’s reign on the gaming market, let’s take one last look at the seven years that defined the PS4. Oh yes, and the XBOX One.
Games
The PS4 and Xbox One were both released in 2013, and both released to impressive launch lineups, with titles like Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Battlefield 4, Call Of Duty: Black Flag and Injustice: Gods Among Us a few of the standout names.
As for the exclusives, PS4 launched with the release of Killzone: Shadow Fall, whereas the XBOX One had the Forza Motorsport 5. However, it was the exclusives released over the course of the seven-year period that primarily gave the PS4 its unbelievable fame.
Beginning by releasing a remastered version of The Last of Us for the PS4, which is, in my opinion, one of the best games ever made, Sony started it’s run of releasing content-heavy, story-driven masterpieces, a trend that has lasted through the lifetime of the PlayStation 4. They went on to release Uncharted 4, again, in my opinion, the best in the franchise and generally a fantastic game, and in the past few years, Sony has dished out some truly outstanding titles with the likes of Horizon: Zero Dawn, Marvel’s Spider-Man and God Of War.
In complete contrast to this, the XBOX One’s exclusive collection is minuscule, with Halo 5: Guardians being the only positive highlight, and that clearly doesn’t make for a good showing. The Xbox One’s lack of exclusive content to rival the quality that Sony was offering it’s players forms one of the biggest reasons why the XBOX One failed to capitalize on a market its predecessor had thrown wide open.
Specifications
There’s no competition here, the XBOX One wins hands down. It was far more powerful than the PS4 when they released, and this promise of higher technical specs drew a lot of the XBOX faithful towards the XBOX One. Its quality is uncompromising and genuinely good, you’ll rarely ever encounter a drop in frame rate or any technical glitch from the console’s side.
However, Microsoft, bundled it, by making the Kinect, the motion-sensing device, a compulsory purchase with the XBOX One. Now, the Kinect did gain popularity in the 360 era, but it was never the first choice for gamers and this decision definitely came back to haunt them as the generation progressed.
The PlayStation 4 however, had no such strings attached to it. The tagline said “Greatness Awaits” and greatness did await for the PS4. Then came the mid-gen releases, the PS4 Pro and the XBOX One S.
The One S was even more powerful than the Xbox One, but suffered from the reputation it had in the market by that point. The PS4 Pro, on the other hand, built upon the foundation set by the PS4 and propelled the brand forward.
It’s clear that the PS4 was the clear winner of the previous generation, but this time around there seems to be a promise for a closer, better-matched fight.
The Next-Gen Consoles: What Do We Know?
With the XBOX Series X specs being confirmed and the PS5 being treated to a shoddy "Road to PS5" semi reveal event, we finally have our hands on the first specs of both the consoles, which is enough to get us hyped and begin the comparisons.
As on the time of writing, these are the specs we know for the XBOX Series X:
Custom-designed processor from AMD (making use of Zen 2 and Navi architecture)
Twice as powerful than Xbox One X
Capable of running games at 120Hz frame rates
Potential 8K resolutions
Will support Ray-tracing in games
SSD storage system, thereby claiming to minimize loading times to nil
Compatible with Xbox One accessories
Physical disc drive
Backward compatible with XBOX One games.
And these are the specs of the PS5:
AMD Zen 2-based CPU with 8 cores at 3.5GHz (variable frequency)
10.28 TFLOPs, 36 CUs at 2.23GHz (variable frequency) GPU with custom RDNA 2 architecture
3D Audio Systems
Will support Ray-tracing in games
Custom 825GB SSD Internal Storage, thereby claiming to minimize loading times to nil
NVMe SSD slot for expandable storage and USB HDD support (PS4 games only) for external storage
4K UHD Blu-ray disc drive
Backward compatible with PS4 games
16GB GDDR6 / 256-bit memory interface with 448 GB/s memory bandwidth
Also, the new DualSense Controller was revealed for the PS5, which looks an awful lot like the existing XBOX Elite Series 2 controller but having said that, you simply can't take away the fact that the PS5 DualSense looks drop-dead gorgeous.
For Gaming Geeks, all this makes for exciting, mouth-watering news. But as is the case in this industry, all this power will amount for nothing if we don’t get the games, and that’s where the battle between these two heavyweights will be decided again.
As of February 2020, Microsoft has confirmed that Halo Infinite, Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga and Microsoft Flight Simulator will be released during the launch window of the Series X. In contrast, exclusives for the PS5 are still just guesses, with the only confirmed one yet being Godfall. Speculation is that Horizon: Zero Dawn’s sequel may also be released at the end of this year, something that will definitely up the hype for the PS5. Adding to that is a virtually confirmed remaster of The Last of Us Part II, something I cannot wait to get my hands on.
What to Expect
While most details remain shrouded in mystery as far as the Series X and the PS5 go, there’s enough out there to get us excited. This jump to the next-gen will definitely improve the quality of the games significantly and will open up massive new avenues to explore.
However, given the situation with the coronavirus pandemic and with games being delayed across the board plus with E3 2020 scrapped, it remains to be seen how Microsoft and Sony go about promoting their respective consoles. Also interesting to note would be the cost of these next-gen consoles, as many reports suggested that the PS5 could follow the PS3’s pricing model.
Whatever happens, the face-off between the XBOX Series X and the PS5 is one to look forward to, and one that will hopefully give birth to a new generation of wholesome, amazing gaming experiences.
References:
Gamespot.com
IGN India
TechRadar
Tom’s Guide
EuroGamer
Whatculture Gaming
I used these sites to find the exact specs, game titles, release dates, etc. There’s a ton of information out there on the internet about these new consoles, so feel free to explore and get hyped. I'll be writing about the games that we can expect in the future, the sequels we want, and everything related to the next generation of gaming, so stay tuned.
If you’re here, I know this interests you, so please feel free to discuss them in the comments of the respective Instagram post, the link to whose account is present on the website. However, I urge you to keep the comments respectful and non-derogatory. I look forward to reading your views, and I sincerely hope that you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it.
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