2013 is going to be a big year. Last year we had an array of crazy AAA titles, this year we have the next-generation consoles. With that, comes endless debates between the Playstation 4 and Xbox 720, a storm of rumors, speculation, educated guesses and even Playstation 4 controller mock ups. The community is yearning to hear the smallest detail concerning the consoles and the press is eager to deliver.
Now, there are boatloads of playstation 4 and xbox 720 rumors that are leaked from "industry sources", sources who claim to be working on the inside and have inside knowledge. Sometimes they're small, minor details and other times they're just pranks. However, within the plethora of rumors you'd think that at least one of them has to be somewhat accurate. One of these "industry sources" has to actually be in the industry. According to said rumors, the Playstation 4 is looking a lot better than the Xbox. As an Xbox fan, let me explain why.
In the past year, Microsoft has made its intentions abundantly clear with the Xbox. They want it to be able to do more than just play games, they want to turn in into an entertainment box. The current Xbox already has a wide range of entertainment apps like Netflix, Zune, ESPN and more. Microsoft wants to accentuate the fact that entertainment apps have far exceeded their expectations. During E3 2012, Microsoft confirmed that they're going to be putting a lot of focus on the entertainment aspect.
At first, that doesn't sound too bad, right? They've done a great job with the Xbox and it's games and now they want to bring up the other aspects of the console up to par. Along with my gaming habit, I can now enjoy plenty of movies, T.V shows and music. It would be safe to assume that the next-generation Xbox would not suffer in the gaming department.
My fear is that it will. With all this focus on the entertainment side, the amount of focus that was poured into the current generation Xbox will be much less. Mostly because now, the entertainment side and the gaming side will be on the same level. The next generation Xbox will not allow used games. This move is to combat piracy and promote digital downloads but will inevitably decrease the sales of the Xbox. Also, according to some developers, the Xbox's architecture seems to be suffering too. Microsoft is only allowing developers to utilize methods approved by them and nothing else. This limits the developers and forces them to go out of their way to port a title to the Xbox. Sound familiar?
In the midst of all this, Microsoft seems to be doing everything wrong whereas Sony sounds like it is on the right track. In our current generation consoles, the Playstation 3 was the tricky platform to develop for. Remember how long the DLC's for Skyrim took to get on the Playstation 3? It wasn't just Bethesda either. Now, Sony seems to have turned the tables.
They did indeed file a patent that will combat piracy but they might not even implement it. It could just be a placeholder, preventing Microsoft or Nintendo from filing it themselves. The same developers who commented on the next-generation Xbox's strict architecture stated that the Playstation 4 can leverage more power. Because unlike Microsoft, Sony has not set strict limitations when it comes to development. The architecture is less rigid than that of the Xbox.
The last thing is that could set the two apart is performance. According to the rumors, the two consoles are fairly close when it comes to their specifications. However, the main difference between the two is the RAM. The Xbox is rumored to have 8 GB whereas the Playstation 4 will have only 4 GB but the Xbox will be running a DDR3 RAM and the Playstation 4 will offer a GDDR5 RAM. Basically, this gives the Playstation 4 a slight advantage when it comes to visuals, because it will ultimately have more room for the developers to play around.
On that note, if any of these rumors prove to be true, I will most definitely be purchasing the Playstation 4 as I'm sure most of you will too. My only struggle will be getting back into that controller, which I hope they change drastically. This is all irrelevant until we hear the facts come from Sony and Microsoft themselves, but with all the rumors floating around, it's hard not to form some sort of opinion. Let us know which of the two consoles you plan on purchasing this year in the comments section below.