Having been released in a manic two day period between 10-12 November 2020, Xbox and Playstation both became the center of attention as the latest battle for supreme console commenced. Xbox gave themselves a two-day advantage releasing first, but at the end of the day with pre-order sales it shouldn’t have given them that much of an advantage. Additionally, it is not like consoles are new to people at this stage; people are typically loyal to their provider at this stage. Obviously this doesn’t live true to every console upgrade. Debatably, the correct route was to follow the Xbox 360 with the Ps4! So who knows which people really prefer, and how loyal they would be depending on the circumstances. So nearly a year after their initial release, who is winning the battle?
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Sales Success
Okay so it clearly makes sense to check the sales record of each to see which has ultimately been more popular. Sure, this doesn’t mean that the higher selling console is necessarily the better one as we need to take other aspects into account (price for example), but it is a good indicator. So as of July 18 2021, Playstation had sold over 10 million consoles, which is a pretty impressive feat. Xbox however, had sold 6.5 million as of June 30. So unless Xbox sold 3.5 million consoles in a two-week period, Playstation is the clear winner here.
Price?
So does Playstation offer such a discount which makes it more desirable than Xbox? Well, not quite. If we look at the optimum console for each (PS5 Base version vs Xbox Series X), both come in at $499. It is true that if we compare the digital version of the PS5 to Xbox Series S, Xbox wins. The Xbox Series S can be obtained for $299 whereas the digital version can be bought for $399.
Is The Series S Better Than The Digital PS5?
So what exactly is the difference between these consoles? Well for starters, both are entirely digital so you cannot insert discs into them. Ultimately this means you can only buy games from the online stores of each console, so you will likely be locked into the price they set out. In terms of PS5, it is basically the same console without a disc drive. The Xbox however can essentially be considered a different console. Where the PS5 maintains its technical specifications, the Xbox S is significantly weaker than the Xbox Series X. Its resolution is downgraded from 4K to 1440p, and the GPU is considerably less powerful. It is still a decent console, but nothing compared to its alternative. It’s memory is also limited to 512GB. These days games can take up to hundreds of GB, so even though you can purchase a 1TB Expansion card, it is very pricey and will ultimately set you back more than if you’d bought the better console to begin with.
Exclusive Games
So even though most games are available on both consoles (even cross-over play is making huge gains nowadays), there are some games that remain exclusive to each console. On the PS5 some notable exclusives would include: Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon II: Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7. Whereas on Xbox you can play: Halo Infinite, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, Forza Motorsport 8 and State of Decay 3. So the relevance of this is entirely dependent on whether these are games you play, and would otherwise purchase. If not, don’t give too much thought into it.
Are They Backwards Compatible?
At the end of the day, no matter how many new games come out, we will always sometimes long to play some of our old, favorite games. For example, The Simpsons Hit & Run will always be a classic and it is sad that we can’t play it since it was released on such an old console (PS2). So are these new consoles capable of playing our old favorites? The PS5 is capable of playing almost all PS4 games, which includes optimized PS4 Pro titles. The Series X goes a step further however, being able to play Xbox One games, 360 games and even the original Xbox games. In this category, we have to give it to Xbox.
At the end of the day, both are top consoles and it really depends on things like personal preference, price etc. If we had to recommend a console however, it would certainly be the PS5. Playstation has long been winning the war with Xbox; it has a better controller and we really feel the system just works better- No offence Bill Gates! Either is certainly a good choice, however.
