Which One First? Re-Visiting the New Consoles as Launch Purchases

With the passing of PAX Prime, Gamescom, and San Diego Comic Con it’s time to once again assess where the new consoles stand. Microsoft has reneged on a few of the options they discussed at E3 and Sony has introduced a few additional goodies. Video game journalists and people in attendance of a few different conventions have gotten their hands on the consoles and have given their first impressions. Now that people outside of Sony and Microsoft have given their “unbiased” opinions on the new systems I’ve begun to re-evaluate which system I will purchase at launch. I’ve always known I’d get one of the two, but there are a lot of factors to think about prior to making this decision. The convention season allows for people like me, the somewhat more researched consumer, to hear the pros and cons of both systems and make an informed purchase for a less expensive launch purchase. I know some of you will probably just pick up both, but there are a lot of people who don’t have the means to purchase $1,000+ in new systems in just one month. Hopefully this article will help you to more clearly decide which console is worth that lucky launch day purchase.

Release Dates and Price Point:

Okay, the release dates don’t really make a difference in your decision of whether or not to purchase at Launch, but it is good information to know so you can plan your savings or paychecks accordingly.

There’s a small variation in price point, but if you have a strict budget this November and don’t really care which one you pick up at launch then $100 makes a pretty big difference.

Xbox One:

November 22^nd

Price: $499

PS4:

November 15^th

Price: $399

Launch Games

One of the most important aspects of which console to purchase at Launch is which games will be available to you during the launch window. For me these are a make or break scenario when deciding which to purchase; you can have the best system available at Launch but if there aren’t any good games to play right away it becomes a nice decoration piece next to your TV. Exclusives are where the systems pull forward in the minds of most gamers and both Microsoft and Sony are offering up a decent amount of exclusives during launch. Both systems are getting some really great AAA titles during launch as well, but all of these will be available on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Xbox One & PS4:

• Assassin’s Creed IV
• Battlefield 4
• Call of Duty: Ghosts
• FIFA Soccer 14
• Just Dance 2014
• Lego Marvel Super Heroes
• Madden NFL 25
• NBA 2K14
• NBA Live 14
• Need for Speed: Rivals
• Skylanders: Swap Force
• Watch_Dogs

Exclusives:

Xbox One:

• Crimson Dragon
• Dead Rising 3
• Fighter Within
• Forza Motorsport 5
• Killer Instinct
• LocoCycle
• Peggle 2
• Powerstar Golf
• Ryse: Son of Rome
• Zoo Tycoon
• Zumba Fitness: World Party

I personally have never had much interest in the Kinect as a tool for gaming so a couple of these titles (Crimson Dragon and Fighter Within) hold little excitement for me. I am, however, extremely excited for Dead Rising 3 and Ryse: Son of Rome. Dead Rising 3’s graphics look phenomenal and the introduction of a much more open world concept has me drooling. I was initially very leery about Ryse: Son of Rome, like everyone else after E3 I was turned off by the idea of a game so heavily focused on Quick Timing Events (QTE), but the trailers since have proven that the game has much more to offer than QTE. Microsoft did a damn good job of picking up some high profile games for launch, but this doesn’t mean they’ve won my vote just yet.

PS4:

• Blacklight: Retribution
• DC Universe Online
• DriveClub
• Killzone: Shadow Fall
• Knack
• Resogun
• Tiny Brains
• Warframe
• War Thunder

The only game in this lineup that has me super excited should be pretty obvious: Killzone: Shadow Fall. I am big fan of the series and this is the only launch title on either system that fits my FPS needs like a glove. Many of these titles are available digitally and are free to play which is a huge plus for all you FTP advocates and gives Sony a pretty big push over Microsoft, who has very little digital games to offer and zero FTP during launch. Killzone is pushing my vote for the win on launch exclusives.

Specs

Xbox One:

• 8 Core CPU
• 8GB System Memory
• 500 GB HDD
• Blu-Ray Drive
• 802.11n Wireless with Wi-Fi Direct
• USB 3.0 (3 ports)

In a bid to clarify people’s perceptions of the Xbox One’s performance vs. the PS4 Microsoft’s Director of Product Planning Albert Penello posted on NeoGAF  to try and spell out the differences between the two systems. Microsoft has also come out since revealing the Xbox One’s specs at E3 to announce that the Xbox One will receive a minor performance boost prior to launch, bringing the GPU clock speed to 853MHz instead of the 800MHz originally projected.

PS4:

• Eight-core X86 AMD Jaguar GPU:1.84 T-FLOPS, AMD Radeon Graphics Core Next Engine
• 8GB System Memory
• 500 GB HDD
• Blu-Ray Drive
• 802.11n Wireless
• USB 3.0 (2 ports)

At Gamescom this year TechRadar discussed the PS4 with Fergal Gara, VP and Managing Director at SCE UK and Ireland, and he had high praises for the PS4 which led to the aforementioned clarification of Xbox One’s specs: “…it’s great to be going to market with what we believe is the most powerful gaming device ever conceived and certainly ever developed…” Sony has always been on the cutting edge of technology, pushing their consoles as far as possible within the restraints of affordability and the PS4 is obviously no exception.

There is no clear winner on specs (in my mind), both consoles are neck and neck as far as offering a high tech power house of a console. One thing to keep in mind is that Xbox is offering the same specs at a higher price, but the price difference may come largely in fact due to their inclusion of the Kinect as a piece of hardware. PS4 is shipping without any sort of camera/MOVE device.

Extras

Before I get too lengthy, I want to discuss one last major point: the goodies/extras. Sony recently announced PS Vita TV which allows PS Vita owners to plug their handheld into the TV and play games on their big screen. It also has the potential for players to use their Vita as a controller for the PS4. Unfortunately there is no announcement for this coming to the US, as of right now it is only going to be available in Japan (Booo!).

The Xbox One is going to come packaged with the Kinect which is a huge bonus for a lot of people. Microsoft is pushing to a larger audience than what is usually described as “core gamers” and instead is trying to appeal to the family as a whole, via TV apparently (I love this video):

http://youtu.be/KbWgUO-Rqcw

Overall, the goodies/extras aren’t really pushing me to buy either console at launch.

Availabilty:

As of right now the Xbox One is still available to pre-order. The PS4 pre-orders were cut off months ago. Ouch! That actually plays a pretty big factor in whether or not you’ll even be able to get your hands on a system at launch. Frantic parents scoop up the leftovers pretty quickly at Gamestop because they forgot to pre-order and promised to purchase the system for Christmas. I’d expect for these to be somewhat difficult to get your hands on prior to Christmas if you don’t pre-order.

Final Verdict:

I’m still not sure! PS4 is pushing ahead by quite a bit as my launch purchase. It’s more affordable, has a FPS game that I want to play at launch, and offers up the huge library of games on PSN. My holdback is that I don’t know how long it will take for me to save enough to buy the Xbox One and Microsoft has won my heart with exclusive series like Halo and Gears of War. I don’t want to miss out on when those launch! We still have a couple of months before these systems launch and that is plenty of time for new information to come out about the consoles. I think I’ll make a firm decision the week before the PS4 comes out…

What do you guys think? Have you made a solid decision on which console you’ll get at Launch? If so, give me your reasons!