Xbox executive says comparing specs is "meaningless"

Xbox executive Albert Penello believes comparing systems specifications between Xbox One and PlayStation 4 is "in some ways meaningless."

"The problem is that Sony decided to go out and publish a bunch of numbers, which are in some ways meaningless," Penello told OXM. "Because this isn't like 1990, when it was 16-bit versus 32-bit."

He continued, "They actually go out and they talk about how proud they are about their off-the-shelf parts. Our guys'll say, we touched every single component in the box and everything there is tweaked for optimum performance."

Ultimately, Penello said he believes consumers will choose a console for the games it has, not for how it is described--technically--on paper.

"Here's what you care about," he said. "You bought a system to play great games and have great experiences," Penello said. "I feel like our games and experiences are going to be every bit as good, if not better, technically--on top of all the magic we're going to add with the instant switching, and the power of the cloud."

Penello said he would rather not even have the conversation about Xbox One vs. PS4 specifications because "it's not going to matter."

"I heard this exact same argument last generation and it's a pointless argument, because people are debating things which they don't know about. They're not [head silicon engineer] Nick Baker or [corporate vice president of IEB hardware Todd Holmdahl], and I'm not [lead PS4 architect] Mark Cerny, so why are we having this discussion?"

The Xbox One ($500) and the PS4 ($400) launch later this year.