PS4 / Xbox One console war

[Skykid]

PS4 gets the A-ok from Hideo Kojima...

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/kojima-p ... le/0128097

“I think, between the home consoles available in the domestic market, the PS4 is the best,” he said.

“It’s also excellent for graphics, being able to render 1080p at 60fps with room to spare. Since it does it a little better than other hardware, the image quality of the PS4 is the most beautiful. It’s the closest to the photorealistic quality we are aiming at.”

That means he'll likely be releasing some more sub-par cutscene games soon! Yay! \(^_^)/

[replayme]

PS4 gets the A-ok from Hideo Kojima...

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/kojima-p ... le/0128097

“I think, between the home consoles available in the domestic market, the PS4 is the best,” he said.

“It’s also excellent for graphics, being able to render 1080p at 60fps with room to spare. Since it does it a little better than other hardware, the image quality of the PS4 is the most beautiful. It’s the closest to the photorealistic quality we are aiming at.”

That means he'll likely be releasing some more sub-par cutscene games soon! Yay! \(^_^)/

That's obviously a matter of opinion - that you may be inclined to dress up as "fact" or not. But I love his MGS games.

[RegalSin]

The localize writer ( the middle-woman ) of the series is a complete jerk, and now that she is going, she is a bigger jerk. Phuck it. You can never get a real translation of MGS, ever thanks to her, she even insulted Hideo Kojima, or his idea's. Metal Gear is a waste of time, riding on memories of the Vietnam era.

[Skykid]

That's obviously a matter of opinion - that you may be inclined to dress up as "fact" or not. But I love his MGS games.

It's a tough one to call with MGS. Technically amazing, hyped beyond all belief, loved by millions.

Personally I think they're overrated, but not because they're bad games - there's just not enough game in there to justify the usual seven hours of cutscene. Hideo is also responsible for some of the most ungodly, convoluted, altogether terribly incoherent storytelling/plotlines ever to come out of Japan.

And considering what comes out of Japan in terms of ungodly, convoluted, altogether terribly incoherent storytelling/plotlines, that's some claim to fame!

I also think the control scheme is a little stiff and out of date since MGS2.

[replayme]

That's obviously a matter of opinion - that you may be inclined to dress up as "fact" or not. But I love his MGS games.

It's a tough one to call with MGS. Technically amazing, hyped beyond all belief, loved by millions.

Personally I think they're overrated, but not because they're bad games - there's just not enough game in there to justify the usual seven hours of cutscene. Hideo is also responsible for some of the most ungodly, convoluted, altogether terribly incoherent storytelling/plotlines ever to come out of Japan.

And considering what comes out of Japan in terms of ungodly, convoluted, altogether terribly incoherent storytelling/plotlines, that's some claim to fame!

I also think the control scheme is a little stiff and out of date since MGS2.

The control system for MGS3 is certainly unwieldy. But I still don't care. MGS is getting bought. I adore Kojima's war-scene theatrics and all the cut-scene padding that comes with it.

[Friendly]

The localize writer ( the middle-woman ) of the series is a complete jerk, and now that she is going, she is a bigger jerk. Phuck it. You can never get a real translation of MGS, ever thanks to her, she even insulted Hideo Kojima, or his idea's. Metal Gear is a waste of time, riding on memories of the Vietnam era.

OK, this time I'll do it:

[replayme]

The localize writer ( the middle-woman ) of the series is a complete jerk, and now that she is going, she is a bigger jerk. Phuck it. You can never get a real translation of MGS, ever thanks to her, she even insulted Hideo Kojima, or his idea's. Metal Gear is a waste of time, riding on memories of the Vietnam era.

OK, this time I'll do it:

That's funny.

[BulletMagnet]

In case anyone needed to hear more concerning how heavily MS is banking on Titanfall, an upcoming update for the XB1 will adjust the controllers' thumbstick sensitivity specifically in anticipation of the game's launch.

[RegalSin]

The X-box one controller is downgraded by software on purpose.....out of the box.

A person who opens a brand new 720, will have shoddy everything if they do not connect to the internet?

Isn't that suppose to be a job for the game programmer and not Microsoft?

Microsoft did their job, and made the thing. The game is sappose to have good controls, not blame the console itself because it is pre-programmed with shoddy controls.

[Specineff]

The localize writer ( the middle-woman ) of the series is a complete jerk, and now that she is going, she is a bigger jerk. Phuck it. You can never get a real translation of MGS, ever thanks to her, she even insulted Hideo Kojima, or his idea's. Metal Gear is a waste of time, riding on memories of the Vietnam era.

OK, this time I'll do it:

He's referring to Agness Kaku, the translator/writer for MGS2 and Katamari, on her criticism of Kojima's writing (in)ability.

Which really doesn't have much to do with the topic at hand. I need scissors! 61!

[Friendly]

So, looks like PS4 outsold Xbone 2:1 in January in the USA. That's fantastic, especially considering that PS4 was severly supply constrained while the market was flooded with Xbones. Can't wait for worldwide numbers.

Microsoft am cry.

[system11]

That's what you call a crushing defeat, 2:1 on their home turf.

[BryanM]

It's only 2 to 1 if you get your information from the fox news of sonydom. Somehow it's close to 1:1. Why, I can't tell you. Racism and peer pressure? Supply cap? I'll go with supply cap.

In case anyone needed to hear more concerning how heavily MS is banking on Titanfall, an upcoming update for the XB1 will adjust the controllers' thumbstick sensitivity specifically in anticipation of the game's launch.

What the fuck. That makes little to no sense. The device returns a number between -1 and 1 for each axis of direction polled; there's no way to make it "better" with fairy dust.

I'm with RegalSin on this one. The firmware has to be intentionally or accidentally fsucked up for there to be anything to "improve".

[brentsg]

I'm becoming fond of the "word" sappose.

[BryanM]

Years from now I'll use the word "sapposedly", and instead of getting the reference, everyone will think I'm a dyslexic idiot instead

[brentsg]

I think it's sappose to be sapposebly.

[BryanM]

excellent. that's better

[Ed Oscuro]

So, looks like PS4 outsold Xbone 2:1 in January in the USA.

Some of that bounce could be attributable to people delaying a purchase when they couldn't find one locally. At the same time, I wonder how many Xbox One sales were substitutions for PS4s that people wanted to buy.

Amazing margin either way.

[system11]

Thief: 1080/30 vs 900/30
MGS V: 1080/60 vs 720/60

And... Polygon, their favourite media shills just turned on them:
http://www.polygon.com/2014/2/17/541946 ... ct-pack-in

[replayme]

I need to ask: is it possible for MS to drop the Kinect and upgrade the hardware aspart of the next XBone revision? Is that even possible?

[system11]

Drop Kinect to reduce price: yes, politically difficult
Upgrade hardware: no, market suicide

[replayme]

Drop Kinect to reduce price: yes, politically difficult
Upgrade hardware: no, market suicide

Could they not offer some sort of rebate to existing owners though?

The phone and PC market have shown that people are prepared to pay silly money on a regular basis to stay ahead of the curve. And now that it's common knowledge that the XBone isn't as powerful as the PS4, won't this hurt them in the long run? I mean, just look at the underpowered Wii U and its lack of sales and support.

[system11]

Nah, it won't fly, they're never going to recall a couple million consoles and risk market fragmentation due to people who don't take up the offer.

It's easy enough to solve - just don't buy an Xbox One and you'll be fine. I suspect the reason for the 360 Titanfall being kept so quiet is that it might look and run uncomfortably close to the XB1 version anyway...

[BryanM]

They can't offer a version with better vram. The amount of ass pain that'd cause them and their partners... Two content pipelines, double the quality assurance work... slashing profit margins in a business where you're lucky to break even to begin with, that isn't happening.

It's easy enough to solve - just don't buy an Xbox One and you'll be fine.

A good solution.gif

[HydrogLox]

Upgrade hardware: no, market suicide

The phone and PC market have shown that people are prepared to pay silly money on a regular basis to stay ahead of the curve.

... and because of this they could mitigate a lot of criticism by mandating that all "Xbox" games released before Nov 2016 (for example) must be able to run (not necessary well) on the launch Xbox One hardware - call it "managed backward compatibility".

Two content pipelines, double the quality assurance work... slashing profit margins in a business where you're lucky to break even to begin with that isn't happening.

Still better than developing for the PC gaming market with no hardware standardization whatsoever - and Xbox hardware refreshes would likely have an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary road map.

It's easy enough to solve - just don't buy an Xbox One and you'll be fine.

The mass market has trouble adopting this attitude - otherwise Apple would have been bankrupt long ago with its yearly product line refreshes. Xbox is trying to battle this out over the service rather than console hardware. They are only "defeated" once Xbox Live subscribers (with an Xbox 360/Xbox One, etc.) abandon Xbox Live in favor of PSN+(PS4) - otherwise any Xbox Live subscriber is simply seen as a customer "in waiting" for any Xbox refresh.

[Udderdude]

lol people are actually discussing hardware upgrades as if they were even remotely viable.

This isn't a mobile phone with mostly free, shitty throwaway games here.

[replayme]

Nah, it won't fly, they're never going to recall a couple million consoles and risk market fragmentation due to people who don't take up the offer.

It's easy enough to solve - just don't buy an Xbox One and you'll be fine. I suspect the reason for the 360 Titanfall being kept so quiet is that it might look and run uncomfortably close to the XB1 version anyway...

You may be right, but after MS's numerous U-Turns in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if they do make a hardware revision.

And if there are no discernible (visual) differences between Titanfall on 360 and XBone, again this will lower consumer confidence in the long run. It's what hurt the Wii U - and why people weren't prepared to "upgrade". And already the XBone is trailing behind PS4 on a ratio of 2:1 (even if it did have a better launch lineup).

The graphical differences between the two consoles are going to become even more apparent in a few years, especially when Sony start releasing their first party games (Uncharted, GoW). And because of the PS4's hardware oomph, it's going to be a more sure-fire long term bet (with legs).

At this rate, the XBone is already trailing, and in a few years (like the Wii), its sales might bottom out and flatline, as it certainly lacks stamina from a hardware perspective.

[brownvim]

Sony should be given credit, or Mark Cerny even. It's half Sony getting everything bang on and exceeding developers expectations and half Xbox banking on kinect. Kinect is the reason the GPU is weaker and they went the ESRAM route as they were concerned with heat.

The sooner their is 1 console the better I think.

[ZellSF]

Has it been mentioned yet they got rid of the sharpening filter in the xbone's scaler? Whoever thought it was a good way to add artificial sharpening in the first place?

[Ed Oscuro]

Kinect is the reason the GPU is weaker and they went the ESRAM route as they were concerned with heat.

The sooner their is 1 console the better I think.

None of this is correct. The closest thing to a correct statement is the bit about Kinect, which contributes in a relatively minor way to reducing the capacity of the GPU, along with voice command processing (an even smaller portion).

But beyond that, we have:
- Microsoft's "safe" prediction that GDDR5 wouldn't be available and affordable for use (similarly, this is the first Microsoft architecture which breaks with their pattern of providing unified memory architectures, where a single block of memory can be accessed by both the CPU and GPU, instead of having memory dedicated to the GPU or the CPU)
- The resulting dedication of important APU (combined GPU/CPU in the AMD Jaguar) die space on "move engines" and ESRAM to deal with the tradeoffs of using DDR3, which has lower bandwidth than GDDR5. This meant sacrificing GPU core blocks. This can be seen when comparing the die shots of the PS4 and Xbox One APU cores.
- Not directly related to this story, there's a much more memory-hungry operating system in the Xbox.

Recall that the recent Kinect GPU usage reduction announcement was that 8% of the GPU would be freed up. Compare that to the number of active (and available) cores in the Xbox One and the PS4, and you'll see that Kinect is not the major contributor to the GPU being weaker.

A good comparison of the systems' cores can be found here, so you can research the last bit for the comparison:
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/17173 ... -small-gpu

Edit: Also, here's an old but interesting article about the power of the Jaguar relative to pretty much everything else:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05 ... -consoles/

Jaguar is a 28nm process chip, while Intel's Atom is 32nm. Side-by-side, the Jaguar's die looks to be about half the size of Atom. So there's Atoms out there that probably have more capacity than Jaguar, all told.