The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are Ready for a true head-to-head battle.
Next-gen is now This-gen. The
Xbox One$369.95 at Amazon and
PlayStation 4$399.99 at Dell arrived around a year ago and have had that time to both deal with various launch problems and build up their game libraries. If you want to get a new video game system, these two are the front-runners of the current generation, with several years of games ahead of them and loads of new hardware and features. We put the Xbox One and PS4 against each other in a variety of categories to determine which system comes out on top. From a broad gameplay perspective, the Nintendo Wii U also deserves your attention, but for now let's look at the two big technical powerhouses of this generation.
The PS4 was the front-runner in this category at launch, because the Xbox One with Kinect retailed (and still retails) for $500. However, since then Microsoft has launched a Kinect-free version of the Xbox One and given it the same $400 price tag as the PS4. So, for sheer console pricing, the systems are tied. This changes a bit when you look at the premium subscription services that go with them, which makes the PS4 stay ahead of the Xbox One by a hair, and only in terms of pricing. Sony's once-$160 edge has since been slashed to just $10.
Both Microsoft and Sony offer premium subscriptions to their online services. Xbox users can get a year of Xbox Live Gold for $60, and PlayStation users can get a year of PS Plus for $50. For both systems, this premium service is required to play multiplayer games online, and now neither system requires the extra subscription to watch media services.
Hardware
Now that both systems are out, arguing about the technical specifications. On paper, the PlayStation 4 has a slight edge thanks to using GDDR5 RAM instead of the DDR3 RAM used in the Xbox One, but besides that their hardware is incredibly similar. Both have 8-core AMD CPUs, 8GB of memory, 500GB internal hard drives, and Blu-ray optical drives.
Because of differing architectures and operating systems, benchmarking and directly comparing the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 is effectively impossible. They're so similar we can't declare one to be superior based on specs, and they're different enough that we can't directly compare performance. At this point, it's up to developers to get the most out of either console, and whether one truly shines as more powerful will only be revealed with new games and how they perform. Different games might run at 720p or 1080p, or 30fps or 60fps, between the different systems. But there's no single, set winner here.
Controls
You need a good gamepad to play games, and both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have them. The Xbox One gamepad is a slightly updated version of the Xbox 360 controller, with a slightly more rounded feel and trigger buttons that offer individual force feedback. The DualShock 4, the PS4's gamepad, is a completely overhauled controller that keeps the best parts of the DualShock 3 gamepad and fixes the worst. The analog sticks feel better, the triggers are more responsive, and the controller just feels nicer in the hand. It even features a built-in speaker and a potentially useful but so far underutilized touchpad in the middle. The only problem with the DualShock 4 is the light bar that marks which controllers are on and assigned to which players. You can't turn off the light bar or even dim it, and if your HDTV is glossy you'll probably catch an irritating glare from it if you don't cover it up.
The Xbox One gamepad is great, but the DualShock 4 is outright excellent with a few irritating or puzzling features. Neither should be considered a deal breaker because they both play very well, but the DualShock 4 is simply the most comfortable gamepad we've tested yet.
Games
The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are a solid year old, and that means they're both coming out of the early doldrums known as the launch lineup. The best titles are still coming, but we've seen major releases for both systems to help make them more appealing over the previous generation.
The biggest games are generally cross-platform, and you can count on Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Grand Theft Auto 5, Destiny, Far Cry 4, and Assassin's Creed Unity on both systems. Each console has a few notable exclusives, though. The Xbox One boasted Killer Instinct, Dead Rising 3, and Forza Motorsport 5 at launch, and has since added Titanfall (which is also available for PC), Halo Master Chief Collection, and Sunset Overdrive. The PlayStation 4 had the less impressive Killzone: Shadow Fall and Knack at launch, and since then got InFamous: Second Son and LittleBigPlanet 3. Plenty of games are coming to both systems in 2015, and with so many titles available on both it boils down to a matter of taste for the exclusives.
Online Services
Whether you want to play games online or watch Netflix, you need to connect your game system to the Internet. The Xbox One uses Xbox Live, and the PlayStation 4 uses the PlayStation Network to access online services. In both cases, you need to purchase the premium subscription plan (Xbox Live Gold for Xbox Live, PS Plus for PlayStation Network) to play games online. Xbox Live used to require an Xbox Live Gold subscription for media services, but Microsoft dropped that requirement half a year ago and you can now watch Netflix and other streaming media apps without Gold, including television with OneGuide. You can also use any app on the PlayStation 4 without a PS Plus membership, and with the PS4 requiring the premium service for online multiplayer just like the Xbox One, this change in requirements for media services shifts the balance from PlayStation 4 to a tie.
Camera
The Xbox One can include the Kinect camera, which provides voice control and facial recognition for the system and offers several useful features. The PlayStation 4 doesn't include a camera, but the optional PlayStation Camera is available. Sony is much less enthusiastic about its console camera than Microsoft is about the Kinect, however, and even though an Xbox One sans Kinect is now available the camera still adds some useful functionality. The PlayStation 4's voice controls are much less flexible or sophisticated than the Xbox One, though they've been expanded slightly since launch. That doesn't help that, after a year, still almost no games take advantage of the camera. Microsoft's console is also the only one that can use Skype, and without video chat there's little reason to consider spending extra on the PS4's not-bundled camera.
Media Features
Both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 can play Blu-ray movies and access a variety of online services like Netflix and Hulu Plus. The Xbox One goes an extra step with its television integration. An HDMI passthrough lets you run your cable or satellite box through the Xbox One, and an infrared blaster in the Kinect can control it. This incorporates live television through your cable or satellite provider into the Xbox One's menu system, giving Kinect-based voice control over live television. The OneGuide program guide displays both live television and what content is available on services like Hulu Plus and Machinima, giving you total control over what you watch without having to pick up a remote or a gamepad. Even if you don't want to use voice controls to change channels, you can simply enjoy a split screen view of what's on television while you play your favorite game or browse the Web, thanks to the Xbox One's Snap feature. In bringing all of your home entertainment together into one HDMI input, the Xbox One wins by far.
Totals
By the numbers, the PlayStation 4 still wins a year later. Of course, "by the numbers" assumes no weighting between categories. The PlayStation 4 has an edge in price, albeit a much slimmer edge than it did at launch, and a much nicer controller. On the other hand, the Xbox One jumps far ahead in media features if you don't mind both the $100 extra on the system with Kinect and the $60 per year for a subscription to Xbox Live Gold. The PlayStation 4 is economically superior as a pure gaming system, but the Xbox One is superior as a comprehensive media hub that doubles as a game system. Either way, as always, the biggest determining factor should be which games you want to play, and which platform will have them.
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