Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4 are coming, and they will be facing off against each other in the newest generation of game consoles.
The next generation of game systems is finally upon us. The Sony PlayStation 4 arrives on November 15, while Microsoft's Xbox One is coming out November 22. This is what we know about both systems.
Price and Launch
The PlayStation 4 is a full $100 less expensive than the Xbox One, with a $399.99 price tag instead of $499.99. However, for this price the PlayStation 4 won't come with a camera, while the Xbox One will include the new Kinect and allow for voice and gesture control and video chat out of the box.
The PlayStation 4$59.96 at Amazon will have 16 games and the Xbox One 23 games at launch. Major titles include several cross-platform games like Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, Call of Duty: Ghosts, and Battlefield 4, though Ubisoft's long-awaited Watch_Dogs has been postponed until next year, throwing a wrinkle into some PS4 launch bundles and gamers looking forward to both systems. The Xbox One will get Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3, and Ryse: Son of Rome, and the Playstation 4 will get Killzone: Shadow Fall and Knack as respective launch exclusives. The PS4 was going to get Forza Motorsport 5 competitor Driveclub as a launch game, but it has been pushed back.
Even though the technology is exciting, system launches are almost always tepid for game releases, and with most major games available for both the PS4 and Xbox One as well as current-generation systems and PCs, don't expect a lot of excitement for the first few months of the new systems' availability. For a closer look at upcoming games for both systems, read our lists of the 10 hottest upcoming Xbox One and PS4 games.
Hardware
AMD pulled off a coup this console generation, with its GPUs powering all three major game systems. The Wii U already has an AMD Radeon "Latte" graphics processor, and both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will have AMD chips under their hood. The PS4 has an eight-core x86-64 AMD "Jaguar" CPU and an AMD Radeon Graphics Core Next engine GPU, both of which sit on one custom chip. Microsoft is less open about its hardware, but it was very clear that AMD is the main partner it worked with to develop the Xbox One's 8-core custom CPU.
Regardless, the question of which CPU and GPU are "faster" will likely remain a continuous discussion—not unlike what we saw with the Xbox 360 and PS3's processors, and the Xbox and the PS2, and the Super NES and the Sega Genesis. Different architectures and operating systems mean benchmarking the two consoles is effectively impossible, and like all game consoles, the Xbox One and PS4's graphical prowess will only be as good as developers can coax out of it. Expect graphics performance to stay neck and neck between the two systems for the start of this generation.
Both systems will pack 8GB of RAM, a modest amount for gaming computers, but four times the amount of RAM on the Wii U and 16 times the amount of RAM on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Of course, the amount of RAM isn't the only factor. The PS4 will have GDDR5 RAM while the Xbox One will use the more common and slower DDR3 RAM (the same kind found on the Wii U).
For storage, both systems have a confirmed 500GB internal hard drive, which could prove anemic for users who want to download or fully install all their games or use their system as a media server. Fortunately, both consoles support USB 3.0 external storage, so you can hook up an extra hard drive if either system's internal drives begin to get tight on free space.
The Controllers
Unlike Nintendo, which drastically remixes its controller designs every generation, Microsoft and Sony are sticking with what works, with relatively minor changes. The button layouts of both controllers are identical to their predecessors, and Sony even calls the PlayStation 4's controller the DualShock 4, an upgraded version of the PlayStation 3's DualShock 3. However, both gamepads add new features to their familiar designs.
The DualShock 4 features a capacitive touchpad to add a new way to control games. It also integrates a speaker and a headset jack into the controller, and a four-color light bar better displays which player is which controller, and can give other information based on the action. A dedicated Share button on the gamepad also lets players stream or record their games on the PlayStation 4.
The Xbox One controller doesn't have nearly as many new features, but it boasts force feedback in its triggers, which could make first-person shooters that much more immersive.
The Camera
The Kinect is back and upgraded, but the PlayStation Eye is missing in action. Sony has confirmed an updated PlayStation camera for some form of motion control and video chat, but it won't be integral to the PS4. Unlike the Kinect and the Xbox One, the camera won't come with the PlayStation 4, and will instead be a $59.99 accessory.
Microsoft has been very vocal about the Kinect, and initially made it a mandatory part of the Xbox One experience before backpedaling and announcing that users will be able to disable the camera. However, it will still listen to users, even when the Xbox One is turned off, ready to turn the system on at the "Xbox On" voice command.
The Kinect features a 1080p camera with an "active IR camera" that can see in the dark, and Microsoft claims it can track motion much better than the first Kinect. It also uses a multi-microphone array with noise isolation to better hear voice commands. Controlling the Xbox One with your voice was one of the biggest features Microsoft promoted during the system's announcement and we'll see if the new Kinect works better than the old Kinect for voice and gesture control. Skype will also be available on the Xbox One, and work with the Kinect for video chat.
The PlayStation 4 will eventually have its own camera, but Sony has been much less specific about what it will do and how useful it will be. It will use a two-lens system like the first Kinect for 3D video capture, and be able to record video at up to 1,280-by-800 pixels at 60 frames per second. It will work in tandem with the Dualshock 4 controller's lights to detect gamepad motion, supposedly making it much more accurate than the PlayStation 3's Sixaxis motion control. It also boasts a four-channel microphone array. The camera will be a major upgrade over the seldom-used PlayStation Eye, but it will still be a step down from the technical details of the Kinect, and it still won't be bundled with the PS4.
Media Features
Both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will be fully featured media hubs. This time around, both systems will play Blu-ray discs, just like the PlayStation 3 did. They each have their own online libraries of movies and music to rent or buy, and they will access Netflix, Hulu Plus, and the usual gamut of online media services.
However, the Xbox One goes further, with its own program guide that will work with your cable or satellite provider. Thanks to this program guide and an HDMI passthrough, the Xbox One will bring live TV into the Xbox One experience by taking over your set-top box, changing the channel based on your voice commands and the Xbox One's recommendations. The Wii U offers a similar feature in TVii, which turns the Wii U gamepad into a universal remote, but this complete integration of TV watching is new for a game system.
Online Services
Microsoft has put Xbox Live at the center of the Xbox One, but it has backpedaled significantly since an outcry about the system requiring an Internet connection to play games. Microsoft will now let the Xbox One work and play games without an Internet connection after an initial connection to register the system. This has resulted in Microsoft also backpedaling on its much-vaunted cloud-based features. Cloud storage and server hosting will be available, but Microsoft hasn't been clear if the change will influence in-game cloud computing features mentioned at E3, and its promised digital game trading and sharing features have been downplayed for more conventional disc-based and downloadable game management systems. Like with the Xbox 360, the Xbox One will require an Xbox Live Gold membership at $50 per year to play games online and use streaming media services like Netflix.
Sony takes a step forward and a step back with PlayStation Network on the PlayStation 4. On one hand, users will be still be able to watch online media services like Netflix without a subscription, and will get the ability to capture and share gameplay footage with their friends online. On the other hand, the PlayStation 4 will require a PS Plus subscription at $50 per year to actually play non-free-to-play games online. This is a stark change from PSN on the PlayStation 3, which didn't require a PS Plus membership to play games online. The subscription starts to even out the disparity of concent and access between PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, but PS Plus has historically had much better selections of monthly free games than Microsoft's relatively new free games service.
By Will Greenwald for PCMag.com
November 5, 2013
