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| No idea where this came from originally, found it on a few Google+ feeds |
At the risk of estranging some readers not already familiar with the flame war between the two, you might be in for a little surprise (or just skip this post). Baaasically what this all boils down to is that Sony has done a decent job with marketing on the PS4, and Microsoft has done pretty much an outright horrible job with the Xbox One. Both were fully revealed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) last week, and beings that both are being released in November, there are still a lot of details to flesh out.
After a very broad, overarching question from my brother:
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Hey, so idk if you've been following the whole E3 thing, but I wondered what your thoughts were on the PS4 vs the Xbox One, as well as this whole DRM argument. Also, I've heard uneasy talk about how good the hardware can be in the PS4 if they're charging so much less for it. Is there anything to that?
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I decided to answer with a very long winded email that was apparently exactly what he was looking for. The entire text of my email is below, exactly as I sent it (any typos and all, just for effect). If you do actually make it through this post, I'd love to hear any comments you might have. Also for reference, a great interview with Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) answering a bunch of Reddit questions.
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That is a huge question that I didn't care to type out on the Surface. So I moved to the desktop. The easy one is yes, I have been following E3, courtesy of Engadget.
The big one is the Xbox vs. PS4. For me personally, it's not even a questions which one I think is better. The controller decides that for me, and I know of 2 other guys at work that are in the exact same boat. To loosely quote one of them, it was something like, "You don't even have to tell me anything about either of them, I know which one I'd get as soon as you tell me Xbox vs. PS4 because of the controller. I haaaaaaaaaate the PS4 controller. Don't you think hitting your thumbs together on the sticks would have come up in some design review?!"
Regardless, there is quite the hullabaloo surrounding used game DRM. I can easily see both sides of the arguments. Really, as long as new game prices don't climb and games get better or there are at least more decent games, I don't think anyone should be complaining. People still will tho. That and there's a lot to not like about Sony for DRM. On stage, they said that there will be no restrictions on used game DRM, and everyone was cheering. Later that day it happened to leak out that it wasn't entirely true, and there is a lot left up to 3rd party developers. So basically it's the exact same approach MS is taking, just delivered differently. MS never really was that good at marketing.
Now hardware. I think that Sony has a sub-par wholistic experience. Everyone keeps knocking MS for trying to do everything, but I think it makes a lot of sense. I know a lot of people who got a PS3 just because of the Blu-ray player. There's a lot of technicalities that go into why it was and 8 years later still is one of the better Blu-ray players on the market, but basically it's because the entire Blu-ray part of it is the drive and software. All standalone players are all hardware, which restricts the player to being obsolete at the next Java, Blu-ray, or HDMI spec release. An entirely software approach changes all that since it can be updated with a firmware release. It's not practical to do that in a standalone since game consoles are subsidized by game and accessory sales. The whole cable TV interface is a natural progression of everything, but is what tipped everyone off their rockers with the One. That and deep MS integration - that's what I'm most excited about, and what everyone else is so up in arms about. I don't quite understand why. Maybe it's all the Apple fanboys... I have a desktop that's Win8, a Surface, and soon to be One and Win Phone 8. It's all an ecosystem, just like Apple or Google, just spread out to more of your life (living room, namely). That enables deeper integration with everything, and I'm excited. The SmartGlass app was cool, but it needed more work and integration. I think that's coming with One and the new SmartGlass release.
As far as the actual gaming side, I don't see how people are saying that one is better than the other. From what I've seen so far, it looks like both are using almost identical hardware. The exception is the Kinect side of things. Sony's solution (according to Engadget) is a half-baked gimmick and doesn't work well at all. Compare that to Kinect and you have massive differences in hardware and playability. People are so up in arms over this whole Kinect integration, and again, I don't understand why. I think it's awesome. PS Move on the other hand...well...if you've read about it at all, you'll know what people have said it looks like... I think Kinect is so far above and beyond the Wii (non-U) and PS Move that there's nothing like it. It's a good generation or two ahead of both, and that's still pretty obvious. Even if you buy just the PS Eye, you're looking at a $40 difference between the One and PS4. Many, many people argue that they don't want the Kinect (and I guess therefore the Eye), but I think as developers get their hands on especially this new hardware iteration, more and more people will be glad that the Kinect came with the One and that developers don't have to code around someone either having or not having a Kinect. It's the same sort of reason why I game on a console and not a PC - the games are better and more stable (sure, maybe less graphically awesome since it's running on older hardware) because the developers know exactly what hardware you're running. An included and required Kinect ups that even more.
Ok another biggie...required Interwebz connection. I think it's a hugely smart move and a massive leap forward. Think of all the incredibly sweet functionality you get with this that Sony will never be able to touch with the PS4 - family game sharing (so you can play my games whenever, and vice-versa), never having to put the disc in after the first use, playing your games at a friend's house and not having to bring a disc, background updates, massive persistent worlds, and the list I'm sure goes on (and will get larger as developers awesomize the capabilities). People are crazy haters on the fact that some people still don't have broadband in rural areas, and that's true. I have a few friends who can't even get it because the cable/phone companies can't make it profitable for the cornfields. Think about it from a console lifetime view tho - the last generation had an 8 year lifecycle or so. Broadband will only get more accessible during this time, and MS has to plan for that. Sure, it may hurt day 1 sales a bit (I doubt it, tho), but in the long run, people are going to love MS for it and the awesomenocity that ensues. It makes perfect sense. MS just said today that they have another console just for people without broadband - "It's called the Xbox 360." While it was a little bit harsh, possibly (up for interpretation), someone has to be pushing the status-quo. If no one does, then the market will stay at what it is, and little innovation will happen. Look at what Apple did to the smartphone market - there used to be only crappy phones, and then the iPhone appeared. An elegant, simple, well-built device that cost a small fortune. Look how many they've sold - boatloads.
Price - I sarcastically remarked this morning, I believe, that I wonder how much of Sony's price was "Let's wait til MS releases their price, and then cut $100 off!" It almost had to be that, tho. Sony is now making their online gaming paid only. I know for a fact a lot of people got a PS3 over Xbox just because of the Xbox Live costs vs. PS online being free. That reason is now gone for the new generation devices. Combine that with (from what I have heard from people who came from PS3 to the 360) the vast superiority of the multiplayer experience of XBL vs. PS, and it's a no-brainer. Oh that and MS just upped their server count from 15k to 300k. That brings me to the next awesome point...
COULD RENDERING!! I mean what the crap. How awesome is that. So let's say that as some people are saying the PS4 is superior to the One hardware-wise. Let's see what they say when there's a cloud computer at the ready, pre-rendering the time-insensitive world stuff. That's just nuts, and another big step forward.
Dang this was a long email. You definitely asked for it with that question tho! Maybe this needs to be a way-off-topic blog post...
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