So how will XB1 even compete against PS4

OK first of I loved my 360 way above the PS3...until the last 2 years. Sony starting getting better exclusives and PSN+ was totally a better bargain.

Now the PS4 has upfront better hardware, will most likely get more eastern dev support from Japan, and seems the PS4 features/apps are equivalent if not better than XB1, its smaller and cheaper than XB1; how will MS keep up against Sony?

While i am hoping for strong tie in with apps and the Win8 ecosystem, i dont think that will be enough for it to stand out. Will cloud processing actually be used by developers? and will it be exclusive to XB1? Couldnt the majority of apps be used on PS4 as well?

While gameplay and quality games matter way more than specs. I dont see why Sony couldnt do the same thing with their PS4.

What do you think MS has up their sleeve to stay in this race?

It's only a race if they're not selling consoles and games, and they're selling them as fast as they can produce them. If that changes, then you can start talking about winners and losers (or start talking about the Wii U, at least that would make sense).

What I'll be curious to see once the bubble of "new and shiny" wears off for both next gen consoles how they'll stack up against their last gen counterparts. PS3 to PS4 wasn't as big a jump as PS2 to PS3. Same for Xbox. Neither company plans on taking the last gen console off the market, and for a long while to come last gen will be both cheaper and have a much better library (and also run most of the same apps)...

Who cares?

Both consoles are selling well, it's good for the industry and MS still has plenty of loyal followers. Give it a rest.

ya i for one am really dissapointed in both these consoles. Weak app launch, weak feature launch, continuously being told to wait for updates, and the hardware is weak. I dont see this gen lasting 8 years AT ALL.

And im not starting a console war or letting anything go @Blueresident87 im a tech guy. Wondering what the hell Microsoft is up to the past few years with bragging about the future of windows but having a unimpressive launch of Win8, Windows Phone, and XB1. Why would people chose to buy a console that is more expensive and seems to run the possibility that it wont be able to compete.

One word, exclusives.

Yeah agreed.

Both will be neck & neck by the end of the gen.

I'm enjoying my xbox one

Well, Brazil, the worlds fifth most populous country, currently has PS4 selling @ $1,800 USD while the X1 is about half that. That would definitely work in MS's favour.

To be honest currently Xbone is superior game wise. I'm not excited to play PSD4 right now due to the fact that Forza is the only good driving game and Dead Rising 3 and Ryse. Killzone is boring for the most part. The rise of the PS4 will start to take place after the release of Driveclub.

I have both consoles. XB1 I use almost everyday. I have not touched my ps4 in over 3 weeks. It was mostly a resogun machine for me. XB1 has the upperhand right now with games and probably first half 2014 since I think Titanfall is greater than infamous. Well see. Microsoft will have some catching up to do on exclusives if last gen is going to repeat itself. xbox360 was my main console, but second half of gen ps3 had much better exclusives.

@ankor77:

And that's been Sonys business model since the first Playstation. No sense in wasting good exclusives on a time when they would see minimal profit due to such a small install base.

This is a mistake I think Microsoft made last gen too and don't even realize it. I think games like Kameo and PD0 could have done much better if only they waited another year or two to release them. Rare might have seen a bigger presence last gen too as a result instead of being assigned to kids games after only to watch their founding talents lose job satisfaction and leave the company.

@Murderstyle75: rares heyday was back in the 16bit to 32/64bit era, other words platformers and primitive fps. Although those games donky kong, goldeneye where king back in 90s that doesn't mean they can make good games today.

I did enjoy kameo the perfect dark game was just bad. M$ spent good money acquiring rare, so I'm sure they had every intent on using them to their full potential. Maybe just maybe the ideas and work they were doing was just dated. Look at the banjo kazooie game on 360, they had good ideas that would have worked 15 years ago. Today no one buys platformers unless their $15 on arcade, we've lost a ton of good classic game studios. If not for M$ I promise rare would have been on the chopping block just as much as the classic studios.

The environment for games have change and is still changing to this day. I'm sure M$ wants too pout out games people want to buy. I wouldn't blame them for rare failure to produce. They gave us kameo and banjo kazooie which weren't bad games but dated not popular platformers. They gave us perfect dark, a game they should have dominated on, but that game was garbage. They gave us viva pinata a failed franchise all together but ambitious for all parts. I look at that this way I don't blame M$ on rares failures so much as I think M$ paid top dollar for a praised company that was a generation or 2 past it's prime years.

@gagit811:

Well Don Murphy did claim that Rare had a few projects in the works that Microsoft turned down because they didn't want them doing anything outside of the child demographic. Projects he claimed would be hits. They even wanted to do Killer Instinct and were told no. Now Microsoft gave it to a different developer who isn't even that good.

And look at Bungie. They had to leave Microsoft just to make Destiny. Molyneux left Lionhead for similar reasons.

Now imagine for a second that Naughty Dog belonged to Microsoft and not Sony. Do you think The Last of Us ever would have happened? Chances are , they would have been told to make another Uncharted.

@Murderstyle75: I'm sure that happened, and could be true with the child only games. Maybe M$ neutered rares freedom of creativity. I imagine if they had there's excellent game ideas M$ wouldn't have just been like no way. Also if rare was still owned by Nintendo do you think they would have been allowed to work on any new IP? They would have still been making kid only games under Nintendo. Sony is on another level when it comes to treatment of their in house games and studios. Only Nintendo can match Sonys quality, but no one can match Sony's willingness to try new Ip on first party games. I'm sure any game studio would love to be under sony. I understand why M$ only had bungie working on halo games. They only had two main franchise last gen and halo was and still is its main game. Now we have new systems out, M$ has shown the ability to adapt and change so I expect them to learn and Advance from their past shortcomings.

@gagit811:

And it they advance and continue to show that for a couple years, I might give in but as of now, I'm far too scheptical. I mean in 2006, I never thought I would own a PS3 but three years later when they got their shit together, I went out and bought one.

As for Rares freedom with Nintendo? I think it would be there. If you have a chance to read up on it, its rather interesting how Conkers Bad Fur Day became a game. It originally started as a kids game. They decided to change it and Nintendo gave them the freedom to do whatever they wanted with it. A sequel is also one of the most requested games in the wishlist/feedback forum on Xbox.com.

As for Bungie? I think they certainly could have allowed a new game and take a break from Halo. I mean the 343i installment isn't seeing very much love. While it sold well, most of the sales happened in the beginning based on the merit of the older titles. Most people i know though were not really digging it. I actually had to find new friends to play it with even though all my Halo friends dated back to Halo 2. I also saw it get slammed hard in the Xbox.com general game discussion board when I posted it on sale at Sams Club for $34.99 the following spring.

The xbox one has some sweet titles

No worries. You may not be right about the X1 being hardware inferior. From what I have read on this site the PS4 has a somewhat better graphic processor while the X1 has a better overall build value even after you sub out Kinect. My X1 weighs a lot more than my PS4 (might be an enormous heat sink!?!?!?!). My X1 is quiet while my PS4 is a bit loud when it spins a disk.

The Sony exclusives and PSN+ came because Sony needed to play catch up last gen. If MS needs to play catch up they can do the same.

The two consoles are close enough right now that it will be the games that matter. So everyone wins!

This is my story as well. Bought my PS4 first and had a good time with Resogun, KZSF and Knack, but now that I have the X1 as well, I have to say RIGHT NOW and in the foreseeable future, it will be the better of the two consoles.

It's not just Brazil. Apparently many foreign distributors are charging a lot more than they should for a PS4, while consumers are getting no support or even any answers as to why from Sony.

http://pixelenemy.com/official-russian-ps4-distributor-holding-back-stock-to-sell-at-higher-rate-rumour/

@ShoTTyMcNaDeS:

You are only looking into at the short term though. I mean how many retail exclusives were on the 360 last year and how many were on the PS3? Sony could have easily released as few PS3 games as Microsoft did 360 games, polished them more and called them PS4 games. They didn't do that though and targeted their very large consumer base instead of leaving people without like Microsoft did with all us 360 owners last year. Ryse and a couple others were actually supposed to be 360 games.

First of all, this is system wars material.

Second, yes. The difference between the two platforms is smaller than between the ps3 and 360 (and there are very few would say there was a large gap)

We should see some kick ass games in 2014 for the Xbox.

the same way it does every day pinkie.... BY TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

@sukraj: Indeed. To me, there are some exclusive franchises/games that set the XBone apart from the PS4, including Halo, Forza, Titanfall, Project Spark, and Quantum Break.

Easy...GAMES!! Halo, Titanfall, Project Spark, Fable, Sunset Overdrive. Oh and XBL is still superior to PSN!!