PS4 vs XBox 1... I think Sony has won me over

[Argyle King]

Interesting news... apparently there have been so many Playstation 4 pre-buys on Amazon that they had to create a second product page. The following is quoted from an article I was reading concerning that topic:

Amazon was forced to split the PS4 preorder product listing into two due to high demand. Amazon also listed the following “Product Alert” on the PS4 preorder page: “The standard version of the PlayStation 4 is identical to the Launch Edition. Due to high demand, we cannot guarantee Release-Date Delivery on the standard version of the PlayStation 4. We will deliver the standard version of PlayStation 4 as close to its release date as possible.”


Currently, XBox 1 Amazon preorders are in second place; Playstation 4 occupies both first and third place. Also, I learned some interesting math after recently visiting the Gamestop in the local mall here. All of their XBox 1 units are sold out. They still have Playstation 4 units available for preorder. At first, that sounds as though XBox is doing exceptionally well; beating Sony's product. However, after having a conversation with an employee there, I also learned that the store was only given eight pre-order slots for XBox 1; they were allotted 22 Playstation 4 units for pre-order, and 11 remain. While that means -at the time I stopped- Sony had only managed to sell half of the stock available at that particular store as opposed to Microsoft selling all of their product, the actual math tells a different story.

 

[Janx]

So it looks like sony probably has a 2:1 lead on pre-orders (I just made that up, using guesstimation from the prior post).

I'd be curious if we could isolate for "die hard" fans who are going to buy their favorite vendor, no matter what, versus folks who will switch platforms as the wind blows.

From the PS1-PS3 era, I was inclined to stick with Sony because of the BC. It was a non-issue to simply trade in the old console towards payment on the new console, and be able to keep playing. the steeper $600 price on the PS3 made me wait a year until I could get the original 60GB model for $500. Of which I traded in my older stuff I didn't need and paid maybe a couple hundred for it.

But by the time I got my PS3, I'd already gotten a 360, because everybody else jumped ship from PS2 to 360 because the PS3 was a year late to the game and way too expensive.

Given the complete lack of BC on either box, there's no synergy bonus for staying with Sony or MS on the new generation.

At best, your online subscription will carry over to cover the old box and the new box.

I was surprised to see that PS3 sales seem to have caught up to 360 sales (everybody I know has a 360, very few have PS3). I would bet the number of die hards is equal, and the PS4 extra sales are converts (folks who own 360, but are rebelling against the MS pricing/use game situation).

 

[Derren]

Apparently a lot of XBox games at the E3 were run not on the box but on a PC which had very different hardware than what the Box is supposed to have (for example NVidia instead of ATI).
That builds trust, doesn't it?

http://pixelenemy.com/xbox-one-game...h-nvidia-gtx-gpus-ps4-running-on-ps4-devkits/
Oh, and better not get banned from Live.
http://pixelenemy.com/xbox-one-users-may-forfeit-games-if-banned-from-xbox-live/

 

[Janx]

Apparently a lot of XBox games at the E3 were run not on the box but on a PC which had very different hardware than what the Box is supposed to have (for example NVidia instead of ATI).
That builds trust, doesn't it?

http://pixelenemy.com/xbox-one-game...h-nvidia-gtx-gpus-ps4-running-on-ps4-devkits/
Oh, and better not get banned from Live.
http://pixelenemy.com/xbox-one-users-may-forfeit-games-if-banned-from-xbox-live/

Having worked with Microsoft before, MS enforces an "Eat our own dogfood" policy. If somebody says an MS machine dropped to Windows 7, I doubt the veracity of that because everybody would have been ordered to run Windows 8 since they started doing to the beta releases to the public. Only regression labs would have been left with old Windows OSes to to rest other software on.

Nor is their screen blow-up of what's really running on a console behind somebody's leg quite conclusive. Why the heck would a screen background image say the name of the video card in big green letters. If that was the screen of the "real" machine running the game demo, they would be more likely to run sysinternals's bginfo.exe as that's pretty standard operating procedure.

I couldn't tell you what MS actually did for their demos and live game play. Given how close we are to the November launch date, it seems improbable they couldn't scrape up enough dev and pilot units for the show to run everything on.

 

[Derren]

I couldn't tell you what MS actually did for their demos and live game play. Given how close we are to the November launch date, it seems improbable they couldn't scrape up enough dev and pilot units for the show to run everything on.

Thats not why companies show demos on a PC on such event, but either because the games are not ready or work/look better on the PC as optimization is not done. The real (mini) scandal is also not that the games were run on a PC, thats rather usual, but that the hardware of the PC was apparently so different (and much more powerful) than the box. That means you can't trust anything Microsoft has shown at E3, either graphics or performance.

 

[Janx]

I think what you're missing is that I do not quite believe there is sufficient evidence to the claim that they cheated.

Now if Geraldo Rivera came in guns blazing with a camera crew to rip off the shroud and have a tech PROVE on camera that the wires from the demo controller were actually leading to a PC and the case was then opened and it was shown to have a super fancy video card in it, you'd have something that we in the tech industry call facts.

Some dude saying he saw a box crash to a Win7 background when we know Microsoft doesn't have anything running Windows 7 is controversial and unverifiable.

Some dude super enlarging a monitor hidden behind somebody's leg that just HAPPENS to say the name of a video card in large print on it as if that's a common thing to have in the background of a screen is also fishy. What program or utility in the industry just happens to render itself with the name of the video card brazenly displayed like that?

As I said, I can't prove or disprove what really happened. But I can estimate the likely hood of certain variables even existing, for these claims to be true, and the 2 main facts in the case have strong reasons to NOT exist, thereby casting doubt on the veracity of the claim.

 

[DnD_Dad]

Nothing starts a good rant-war like asking someone which is better Xbox or playstation. The answer is whatever you like. People that like Xbox tend to play more online games as the community is stronger, or people like the exclusive titles that both have to offer, or it was the blue-ray, or the kinect, or whatever. Please buy what you want because there really isn't a difference. You're going to end up dropping a brick of cash on them, accessories, games and monthly subscriptions anyways so get what you want and don't worry about justification as to why. I really think this is going to be the last run of consoles anyways as technology is getting to the point where we have multicore processors in phones and TVs, so why make a gaming system when you can just buy a tv that will play games that offer anything a console does? Just saying.

 

[Janx]

Nothing starts a good rant-war like asking someone which is better Xbox or playstation. The answer is whatever you like. People that like Xbox tend to play more online games as the community is stronger, or people like the exclusive titles that both have to offer, or it was the blue-ray, or the kinect, or whatever. Please buy what you want because there really isn't a difference. You're going to end up dropping a brick of cash on them, accessories, games and monthly subscriptions anyways so get what you want and don't worry about justification as to why. I really think this is going to be the last run of consoles anyways as technology is getting to the point where we have multicore processors in phones and TVs, so why make a gaming system when you can just buy a tv that will play games that offer anything a console does? Just saying.

Oddly enough, I don't think this thread has had much "which is better" debate. They both will play games better than they did before.

 

[darjr]

Oddly enough, I don't think this thread has had much "which is better" debate. They both will play games better than they did before.

Well... that's debatable.

I think we'll have a ps4 at some point, maybe. I did have a chance to talk to my kids and some of their friends and among them the xbox one isn't very popular. Mainly, I think, because of the used game issue. I had no idea that, even my own kids, traded so many games or used the used game treadmill so much.

 

[DnD_Dad]

Did anyone read this?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...c-spying-program-makes-xbox-one-even-scarier/
Basically Microsoft will be selling information the the NSA. The kinect tracks your face, heart rate, and a bunch of other things that a device capable of monitoring those things already can do.