Business Approach Comparison Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox

@joker454

What drought?
Really this is the first time that the next gen started with a solid offer of titles and several AAA (AC4, BF4, COD:Ghosts, Killzone, Ryse, etc...)
Surely there have been a "slowdown" in the last months compared to winter 2013 but form September on we get plenty of AAA titles.

This is the best "year one" I have seen in the last 4 generations, honestly.
 
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Aside from COD, which of those made any money? The point being that there's no reason a new console couldn't launch on day one with a brand new GT game, or a new Uncharted, or the other franchises that people love. Devs get the kits far ahead of time and know the launch date way in advance, plus they have already been working on new rendering techniques on pc anyways. But most games will never launch on day one because it's not worth it, there is no audience to launch to. You get some new titles, in this case looks like rev 4 of existing titles, and have to wait for the really good stuff much later. That means you end up buying your 2009 based hardware in 2013, and then have to wait until 2015-2016 to play the really big block busters on your 2009 hardware. If there was bc/fc then you could play the block busters on launch day. Even if we are to believe that there would be some power loss due to designing hardware with bc/fc in mind, that wouldn't matter because you could play the good stuff years earlier when the hardware still has some visual bite, rather than years later when it's already starting to look tired.
 
Aside from COD, which of those made any money? The point being that there's no reason a new console couldn't launch on day one with a brand new GT game, or a new Uncharted, or the other franchises that people love. Devs get the kits far ahead of time and know the launch date way in advance, plus they have already been working on new rendering techniques on pc anyways. But most games will never launch on day one because it's not worth it, there is no audience to launch to. You get some new titles, in this case looks like rev 4 of existing titles, and have to wait for the really good stuff much later. That means you end up buying your 2009 based hardware in 2013, and then have to wait until 2015-2016 to play the really big block busters on your 2009 hardware. If there was bc/fc then you could play the block busters on launch day. Even if we are to believe that there would be some power loss due to designing hardware with bc/fc in mind, that wouldn't matter because you could play the good stuff years earlier when the hardware still has some visual bite, rather than years later when it's already starting to look tired.

No need to hate on the Xbox One, it's a quite capable machine.
And FYI, it launched with on of their biggest franchises: Forza 5. Also they had a new IP in the launch window: Titanfall. They even had new IP at launch: Ryse.
These games sold well and are loved by many Xbox fans.

Would they have sold more if they were 360 only? Probably, but MS took the risk anyway, showing that they do care about gamers, and are not afraid to lose a few million of sales.
 
No need to hate on the Xbox One, it's a quite capable machine.
And FYI, it launched with on of their biggest franchises: Forza 5. Also they had a new IP in the launch window: Titanfall. They even had new IP at launch: Ryse.
These games sold well and are loved by many Xbox fans.

No hate, both the XB1 and PS4 are built around very old hardware, hardware that is usually exceedingly old by the time the games people really want finally come out. It's the nature of the beast. Did Forza 5 and Ryse make any money? With such a small launch audience I really doubt it. Titanfal was the required new ip as every console gen needs a new ip at launch, did it make any money? Whether they are perceived to have sold "well" or are loved by fans is irrelevant, at the end of the day all that matters is if they made money. That will determine what future games you see, when you see them and what risks are taken. To fans on forums every game they like must have sold well and must be doing great, the reality though is often completely different. As a general pro-tip, if a publisher doesn't scream to the moon and beyond with multiple press releases as to how well a game sold at the start of a new generation with hard numbers, then it probably lost money.
 
Sorry I thought you were specifically talking about the Xbox One. I disagree about the PS4 but anyway.

Tomb Raider only made money now, thanks to the next generation platforms. So I'll guess we'll have to agree to disagree :)
 
Sure sure. I get all that. Even agree with parts. It's just a shame I feel like the hardware is underpowered. And I think (and it looks) like they're going to have a hard time overcoming that with consumers.

PS3-360, ~same price, ~same worldwide sales

PS4-XBO, ~same price (now), XBO seemingly getting outsold heavily.

What changed? Just the power. Unless you still want to blame the DRM debacle, which I feel would be misplaced.

And just personally, I know my tech, and so I know the GPU is a bit of a weakling, and I dont like that feeling. Especially when, including a couple years of Live, and even with various discounts totaling $150, I still dropped $600 on the system. For that price, it really needs to have a premium GPU.

It's built with a 7770. For that price I think it's going to need to be $299 sooner rather than later. $299 seems about fair (a good deal) for the technology I know is in the box.

Sure its underpowered but so is the ps4. This is either going to be shortest generation or it will feel like the longest generation.

They both made machines at a very odd time. These are mid range 28nm machines that came before DDR4 , 16nm finet , stacked nand and some other big changes.

These changes will all hit pcs in the next year or so and blow the consoles out of the water, we already see $150 video cards giving better experiances than even the ps4 in multiplatform titles. This is going only increase with time.

I bought an xbox one because of its exclusives and its online featuers that to me sony has yet to catch up too (and I've played on a ps4 a bunch)

If either company falls to far behind they can simply throw out a replacement console in 5 years and force the other to jump also. Unlike previous generations x64 cpu's will be used and backwards / forward compatibility will be easy to implement. Couple that with hopefully a great family share plan from MS and by the end of this generation hopefully the majority of xbox gamers are on DD.

That way the next system can do away with archaic technology like optical disc drives
 
I hate to fuel your biased rant, but what is a premium game?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_4_games


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_One_games


If one has a horrible droughts, what does the other have?

Why include a list with titles not out yet?

But whatever , PlayStation fans have told me they have experienced a drought and have since bought xbox ones or wii u's to fill that drought. Most acknowledge there is very little to play until late October on the ps4
 
Well, this "trivial thing" is now back in full force this week after Microsoft's keynote at Develop. Expect the whole narrative to be back among the community.

Interestingly, Sony said they considered not having an HDD (just a small flash) while MS considered not having an ODD. Any of these two decision would have killed them, respectively.

Yeah no HDD would have been stupid. I thought about it some more, thinking if it seemed viable. I assume they could have done maybe, at most, 64 GB of flash at a significant savings over a mechanical HDD? Clearly not enough with 40GB installs bouncing around right and left.

That's the kind of decision they could have easily fixed post release though. Not like Microsoft's GPU one which they are stuck with forever.

About th ODD, I'm not 1000% sure that's so clear cut, as it could entail significant (at least $50) BOM/price savings as well.

However currently on X1 for example, games like COD Ghosts and BF4 are 59.99 digital, and at large retailers like Wal Mart when not on sale. However I can get the discs off Amazon for $20 and $30. Things like that REALLY hamstring digital.

There's signs digital is becoming a bit more like steam on console, with sales like the current Xbox sale(mostly on 360). But even on Steam, recent releases stick way too hard to MSRP.
 
Why include a list with titles not out yet?

But whatever , PlayStation fans have told me they have experienced a drought and have since bought xbox ones or wii u's to fill that drought. Most acknowledge there is very little to play until late October on the ps4

Well, both consoles have no games. XB1 is really not better compared to the PS4 in this regard.
As for the premium feeling...I have both, and there is no difference to them.

Maybe joker is right, I do wonder why some of the big Sony studios and MS studios don't have their games at launch.
 
Why include a list with titles not out yet?

But whatever , PlayStation fans have told me they have experienced a drought and have since bought xbox ones or wii u's to fill that drought. Most acknowledge there is very little to play until late October on the ps4

His list includes both announced and released figures. PS4 has 50% more released games available than Xbox One right now.
 
I'm experiencing a drought on my Xbone. I have AC4, Ryse and Peggle 2, and there's nothing else that I find interesting.
 
Why include a list with titles not out yet?

But whatever , PlayStation fans have told me they have experienced a drought and have since bought xbox ones or wii u's to fill that drought. Most acknowledge there is very little to play until late October on the ps4

But whatever? You have access to the Internet? You rely on "friends" to tell you what games are out? BTW TLoU in July is going to be very popular, but maybe that is not premium?

Late October? I think I have three games to buy in Aug. Garden Warfare, Diablo and Minecraft. There is also the DLC for Second Son soon. Not every month is going to be Oct/Nov, but stop with the hyperbole.
 
But whatever , PlayStation fans have told me they have experienced a drought and have since bought xbox ones or wii u's to fill that drought. Most acknowledge there is very little to play until late October on the ps4

It'll depend on your taste but if you believe that then you have no interest in:

Destiny beta - 17th July
The Last of Us - 29th July
inFamous First Light - 27 August
Metro Redux 29 August
Destiny - 9 September
The Walking Dead - 12 September
Alien Isolation - 7 September
Shadows of Mordor - 7 September
Dragon Age Inquisition - 10 September
DriveClub - 10 September
 
It'll depend on your taste but if you believe that then you have no interest in:

Destiny beta - 17th July
The Last of Us - 29th July
inFamous First Light - 27 August
Metro Redux 29 August
Destiny - 9 September
The Walking Dead - 12 September
Alien Isolation - 7 September
Shadows of Mordor - 7 September
Dragon Age Inquisition - 10 September
DriveClub - 10 September

Even though I am interested in some of these games your list does confirm a drought
 
Just to show how times have changed... You might not see a software line up, let alone an exclusive lineup like this again.

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Most Sony studios did not have games ready at launch because had been too busy creating games for the PS3.
It's their business approach to not completely drop support for a console platform once the new one is on the Horizon, unlike their competitors, I must add
 
I'm experiencing a drought on my Xbone. I have AC4, Ryse and Peggle 2, and there's nothing else that I find interesting.

Yeah kinda too be expected. Luckily Destiny will mark the general end of the drought. It's only two months away and the beta sooner.
 
Sure its underpowered but so is the ps4. This is either going to be shortest generation or it will feel like the longest generation.

They both made machines at a very odd time. These are mid range 28nm machines that came before DDR4 , 16nm finet , stacked nand and some other big changes.

These changes will all hit pcs in the next year or so and blow the consoles out of the water, we already see $150 video cards giving better experiances than even the ps4 in multiplatform titles. This is going only increase with time.

The same can be said for every console generation. Previous ones missed GDDR5, good CPUs, had some pathetic hard drive sizes.
This gen, both got an APU though and that has some benefits.

Some people are fed up of upgrading the PC only for gaming : a $150 vid card is nice but changing the rest of the system is less so and won't enable fundamental new uses outside of gaming.
 
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