Interestingly, in the USA, the Ebay average of Xbox auctions seems to be closing at about $800ish, while PS5 auctions are still closing at around $1000.
Just as an aside, this is simply amusement me posting in this thread - I have absolutely no emotional investment whatsoever in these consoles or which one is “better” than the other, or whatever. The differences that are there are mostly minor and even in the scenes where they are differences, they aren’t dramatically long or particularly impactful.
But… i don’t trust MS with being a blu-ray machine. I’d still prefer Sony over MS if the second most important feature is playing 4K blu rays. Probably baseless, but it’s sort of baked into my DNA now. (I would also have to set my hypothetical machine on its side because vertical disk drives give me an OCD twitch of concern).
Can you elaborate on why? Microsoft had a 4K Blu-Ray player last generation while PS4 and PS4 Pro did not. The only feature I’m aware of Microsoft’s player lacking is Dolby Vision support.
HDR was for a long time wrong on the Xbox One S as was widely reported. Even today the Xbox X is reported to have incorrect black levels - I mean, not by a ton, but still, it’s just not “right” it’s “right enough”, which is a weird and unnecessary fumble imo.
My own experience with my previous One X console was that the bluray player barely functioned. Admittedly that [particular] console was a dumpster fire anyway and i only played a couple games on it because most games hard locked it, before more or less throwing it away.
MS lacks a media remote, which makes it seem less Home Theatre and more Gaming Theatre (it’s nice to have an actual remote). Admittedly i haven’t tried using the Sony Remote with an Xbox S yet (it actually works fine with the Apple TV, for example). The PS5 has a dedicated remote accessory.
I trust Sony consumer electronic hardware more than MS consumer electronic hardware, and blurays feel like occupying a different space than gaming equipment. This is some of that “market research” stuff, but i feel more confident that things like bluray players are going to work correctly on Sony equipment than on Microsoft equipment. It probably helps that Sony actually has standalone bluray players on the market and has made them [disk players] for decades.
Past MS laptops had difficulty with media playback. My Surface Laptop 2 was great… but it was a stuttery mess playing YouTube videos back, where a 7 year old iPad was 100% better at. Has nothing to do with blurays, but is adjacent to “do i trust Microsoft making media players” sort of thing.
It’s more a “painting a picture” thing, but there it is.
Here are my thoughts on the PS5 and Xbox series consoles as of right now.
Despite having a larger release catalog there isn’t anything compelling on the PS5 that makes me want to open the unopened one I have right in front of me. Not only is Gamepass’ back catalog more significant but that also as a previous PlayStation owner I have most of the PSN plus bonus games anyway. For whatever reasons Xbox games seem to be getting more updates with next gen frame rates and resolutions. Disappointingly most of the older titles available on the PlayStation haven’t received any performance upgrades at all, so the value of playing an older game on the PS5 is diminished almost (but not entirely) to the point of irrelevance. Xboxes also handle cross save compatibility and cloud saving much more effortlessly than Sony.
However I do long to use the PlayStation‘s new controller. Despite the jokey complaints the Xbox controller does actually hurt my hand a little after long play sessions, and I dislike asymmetric controllers anyway. But there’s more in Sony’s favor; the long-term prospects in the Xbox ecosystem are generally dim for my preferred genres (until at least Paradox began releasing on Xbox Gamepass anyway). Perhaps I’m just missing a new Uncharted style game on the PlayStation that isn’t some grimdark Zombie apocalypse. Multi-platform games to date have surprisingly not been inferior to the Xbox versions, but I do expect with time that the PlayStation will begin to fall behind once developers begin to optimize their code. I do think that the free games provided every month on PS+ tend to be undervalued on the Internet for whatever reason, and as you will accumulate a large collection of high-quality games over time that do not expire and that unlike Gamepass, PS+ doesn’t encourage double dipping. I also prefer the surprisingly large number of smaller and often indy sized first party Sony games that have been released over the years to whatever is going on with Halo or whatever shooter Microsoft is trying to get. For whatever demographic reasons Xbox consoles tend to be the preferred platform of multiplayer Call of Duty style shooters, a genre i’m uninterested in.
But anyway right now I would say that despite not having any release titles imo Xbox is probably in a slightly stronger position then the PlayStation right now. However I’m an older gamer and not eager for release date titles. But otoh I am loathe to over invest inexpensive new releases on the Xbox series S when I could be enjoying Far better performing experiences on this unopened PlayStation.
As far as the Series S has gone, i’ve been pleased with it and enjoyed the 60 fps modes when offered. Checkboard upscaling helps a lot here.
The different rates are different comparisons. So, eg, during week 12 (Mid-March), home console sales were 344% up on the same week the previous year. But during the first 12 weeks of the year, sales were down 5% compared to the first 12 weeks of 2019. The implication being that COVID drove a sharp increase in sales at the end of the period (though they also point to specific games/bundles driving sales during the week in question), but it wasn’t enough to counteract lower sales earlier in the year.
A good chunk of those games are on PC Gamepass, so for me the only compelling reason for a Xbox Series is to play on my TV as opposed to monitor, and that does have merit but not near enough to get me to buy in at launch. On the other hand I’m loving my PS5. Miles and Demon’s Souls were both superb, as was Astro. At the moment I’m playing Days Gone for free via Plus and it’s running at 60FPS.
Weird to come to this conclusion when you’ve literally avoided experiencing any of what the PS5 brings to the table. The Dual Sense and nigh instant load times are magical.
Based on what he said that doesn’t seem like a weird take to me at all. Both machines have really fast load times so it’s not like you need to use a PS5 to get that and he says that he doesn’t play Call of Duty and none of the launch games really interest him so what does he need the Dual Sense controller for at this point?
Nothing on XSX or XSS has load times like Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls and Astro Bot. And the Dual Sense is just amazing, and worth experiencing in Astro Bot alone. It’s fine if he doesn’t care for any of the launch games, but to conclude Xbox “better positioned” based on non-experience is just silly.
I’ll take your word for the load times in those games but those are all PS exclusives and he already stated none of those interest him so who cares what the load times are in those particular games. Again, I’m sure the Dual Sense might be cool, I haven’t gotten to try it but much like @Enidigm, I have zero interest in the PS5 exclusives so no matter how cool it is it would hold no value until it’s used in something that might interest me.
A cool thing I learned watching a friend stream Bugsnax is that the load screen fills up with Snax based on the ones you’ve caught. I didn’t know that beforehand because of how fast the loads were on PS5.
I haven’t picked up any PS5 games aside from that and Astro yet. Still completely happy with the purchase because I was actually able to get one and the performance in FF14 puts my still-fairly-recent PC to shame for less than the video card I plan on buying. Can’t compare it to the Xbox since I don’t have one yet.
Only on QT3, and Newsweek apparently, would the system with no current exclusives and a well documented lack of worthwhile exclusives from the previous generation be labeled the current better buy.
Indeed, it is strange to consider that people might find the expanded access to previous generations’ libraries and the wealth of options on Game Pass worth a look.
I don’t think that’s an unreasonable view? We’ve known from the beginning that it’s a question of Game Pass vs Exclusives. Eurogamer and others have been saying since last year that instead of making a case for Series X and S, Microsoft has been making the case for Game Pass. That’s basically what I based my decision on as well. I want the value of Game Pass now on the new console, and I can always play Sony’s exclusives later on PS5. Game Pass is an excellent value now.
Gamepass at the moment is mostly getting you access to games you weren’t motivated enough to buy, it’s just boosting your backlog. Longterm, as new releases from MS studios drop into it that value propositon will change but I’m talking about today. And I say this as a PC Gamepass subscriber.
The other factor though is that these Game Pass games I love play much better on the Series X than they do on my PC though. Forza Horizon 4 is just night and day difference comparing my PC’s frame rate vs Series X. Same with Gears 5 on my PC vs the Series X, etc.
I realize you probably have a more modern PC so the incentives are different.
Whether the PS5 or the Xbox X is “the better buy” is totally subjective and depends on your situation. I get why someone would want to get a PS5 if Demon Souls or Spider Man or God of War or whatever exclusive is something that interests you. For me personally, there are zero Playstation exclusives that I want to have access to. At least that I want bad enough that I’m going to buy a $500 console for. I already own Gamepass and love it. I want a new console for my kids and I to play in my living room. Therefore, it makes sense for me, right now, to get an Xbox where I’ll instantly have access to a large database of awesome games not to mention the ability to still play some of the old 360 games I have that I might want to play.
People have different opinions from yours, which aren’t the de facto definitive objective opinions anyway, newsflash at 11?
You might not consider GamePass a huge deal but, for some, it is. I’ll never play Demon’s Souls. Couldn’t care much less about that game. But I keep trying new games on GamePass week after week for no extra monies. Including EA games now.
Add to that the games I want like Valhalla and Cyberpunk aren’t first party and what would I need a PS5 for right now? The console with GamePass is the better buy. We’ll see about the other one in a year or 2.
