New Xbox 21st May 6pm

[mr malarky]

seriously tho i love xbox and have owned one always over the playstation but i think the new ps is gonna wipe the floor with the xbox one.

xbox one thinks it's amazing cause it has blu ray on board, bit late sony has already had this years ago and the new ps will prob have 4K and overall i think the new ps is gonna be way ahead of it's time copmared to xbox.

ps will also look better than than that ghastly piece of shunk, where as sony known sony will have a few remarkable plans up their sleeves to triumphant over xbox this time around, although i still love xbox but think this generation sony is gonna rule.

Early indications are that the hardware will actually be very similar in both consoles in respect of graphics chips and CPU's (this may be a deliberate move by both manufacturers and games developers have complained bitterly about the high cost of developing multi-platform totles with the current generation of consoles), so price points, launch titles and multimedia integration will all come in to play.

Backwards capability could be a factor in year 1 when people make their upgrade decisions if Sony offer it and Xbox doesn't; current PS3 owners will naturally gravitate to PS4, where-as current 360 owners will have no material reason to stay loyal to the Xbox platform.

Equally though, if Xbox can get their "illumiroom" feature working properly that could be a really interesting USP for them.

 

[AnotherJoe]

It looks like the ps4 cpu will be 25% faster and the gpu 50% faster than in the xbox one. It's also being reported that 3GB of ram will be reserved for Xbox system - only leaving 5GB for developers. Microsoft is going to have a job selling it if this is confirmed.

 

[iamthegruffalo]

I have always had a PS and I had decided on a new console shortly due to my current PS3 showing signs of imminent failure. I had decided on PS4, but I am now intrigued by the XBOX ONE, hmmm, what to do.

I will end up hand wrangling and undecided I guess, more research to be done then.

 

[mr malarky]

It looks like the ps4 cpu will be 25% faster and the gpu 50% faster than in the xbox one. It's also being reported that 3GB of ram will be reserved for Xbox system - only leaving 5GB for developers. Microsoft is going to have a job selling it if this is confirmed.

Might be worth having a look at the following two links, both of which directly compares the confirmed hardware specs of both machines:

http://m.cnet.com/news/xbox-one-vs-playstation-4/57585484

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/05/21/the-tech-spec-test-xbox-one-vs-playstation-4.aspx

 

[bigboss]

More than the specs, it's the games that'll decide which console will sell more. I can't see people buying game consoles on specs alone. Besides, we don't know yet if PS4 also reserves 3GB for PSN and makes 5GB available for developers.

I had assumed that PS4 will sell more, but with the Xbox One adding a blu ray drive as well, I'm not sure now. I'm assuming that the Xbox can also function as a standalone blu ray player.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

£400 at Zavvi.

 

[bigboss]

Looks like Zavvi wants to cash in on early bird orders!

Microsoft hasn't announced the price yet.

Typical DM news, borrowing fake pictures from the web.

"The Xbox One has been redesigned with sleeker lines."

 

[bigboss]

According to DM, "Microsoft announced the console will cost around $299 in the US, and £299 in the UK."

 

[mr malarky]

I had assumed that PS4 will sell more, but with the Xbox One adding a blu ray drive as well, I'm not sure now. I'm assuming that the Xbox can also function as a standalone blu ray player.

That has to be a given you'd think - Microsoft are clearly trying to position the new console as a 'one box solution' for the living room, so it would be commercially non-sensical to include a BluRay drive but not offer playback of BluRay discs.

Your right on the RAM question as well, the PS4 will also have to dedicate some of its RAM capacity to running the Operating system and the additional controller features ('move control' etc), we just don't know how much yet.

Possibly interesting is the different choice of RAM they've each gone for (GDDR5 for PS4 vs DDR3 for Xbox). Not a tech-head so had to do some reading up on this, basically the consensus seems to be that the Xbox option is faster in terms of executing lots of smaller instructions quickly (eg lots of stuff happening on screen at once), while the PS4 option is less agile but has higher bandwidth so can perform larger single instructions more effectively (eg detailed texture mapping of large environments).

How this will play out in terms of differences on the screen is anyone's guess right now, in reality for most multi-platform tier 1 titles there's likely to be zero difference as the developers will just build the game engine to run the same on both machines (something they've been wanting to do ever since PS2 and the original Xbox came out).

 

[bigboss]

Some discussions about GDDR5 in this thread.

 

[MajorFubar]

I've not read the first two pages so sorry if this has been said already, but who thought making the machine incompatable with existing XBox 360 games was not going to be an issue? It will be a deal-breaker at my house.

 

[bigboss]

From what I understand, the manufacturers are giving their consoles an extended lifespan of 5-7 years. So when a new model is released, they make the older games incompatible so that you have to buy more. The cost of the console is usually subsidized as they make money from games. They lose money on every console sold, and later make that up with game sales. To make the console compatible with older games, the price of the console itself will have to go up considerably (as lesser game titles will be sold obviously).

So you'll end up spending money somewhere, either on the console itself or the games. A lower price point will attract more console sales which is what they want.

 

[professorhat]

I've not read the first two pages so sorry if this has been said already, but who thought making the machine incompatable with existing XBox 360 games was not going to be an issue? It will be a deal-breaker at my house.

Yup, it was discussed - essentially some think it's essential, others think not. My take is, you can always keep the older console for when you fancy a quick game on the old system.

As bigboss has said, making these consoles backwards compatible would push the price up (not good for most people), and would also limit sales of the previous version of the console (which are usually kept on sale for a while after at a lower price).

Certainly no backwards compatability didn't really harm the 360 or the PS3 - I know it had limited compatability, but a lot of people who were interested said this wasn't enough and weren't particularly happy with it, and it also pushed the price of the console up above the £400 mark, so that the Xbox and, even more so, the Wii were more attractive options.

So I think generally it's not something people worry about.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

Now I've taken the plunge and pre-ordered one @game and form what I've asertained the price will be £299 at launch.

Now the backwards compatibility wount be a issue for me providing that you can use you XBOX LIVE account on both consoles simutaneously so if you want to play 360 games simply boot up the 360 and like wise with the ONE for new games. The other thing I didn't hear Microsoft say anything about is that the ONE is designed to reconigse all family members and automatically log you into your console settings but will each family membr need their own XBOX LIVE account or will you all share one account tied to that console?

 

[Joe Cox]

Zavvi reckons £400 and November 30th release date...

 

[mr malarky]

Some discussions about GDDR5 in this thread.

Thanks for that post, interesting reading. No doubt arguments will rage over the next 6 months about which RAM option is better (I'm not sure there's a compelling argument either way at the moment, as much of the commentary relates to PC use and a console is a different operating environment), a quick look through some of the gaming forums suggests the 'Fanboy Wars' have already begun in earnest!!

I'll be going with the x-box, fortunately a friend who lives not that far away will almost certainly go with the PS4 at launch, so I'll get to have a go on both.

 

[bigboss]

Yes, as Gel said, Zavvi has listed it at £400. It's no more than a wild guess.

There are rumours of a discounted console with compulsory 12-month Xbox live subscription. I think Microsoft is waiting for the PS4 before officially announcing the price. It had significantly undercut the PS3 when Xbox 360 was released.

 

[mr malarky]

I've not read the first two pages so sorry if this has been said already, but who thought making the machine incompatable with existing XBox 360 games was not going to be an issue? It will be a deal-breaker at my house.

Yup, it was discussed - essentially some think it's essential, others think not. My take is, you can always keep the older console for when you fancy a quick game on the old system.

As bigboss has said, making these consoles backwards compatible would push the price up (not good for most people), and would also limit sales of the previous version of the console (which are usually kept on sale for a while after at a lower price).

Certainly no backwards compatability didn't really harm the 360 or the PS3 - I know it had limited compatability, but a lot of people who were interested said this wasn't enough and weren't particularly happy with it, and it also pushed the price of the console up above the £400 mark, so that the Xbox and, even more so, the Wii were more attractive options.

So I think generally it's not something people worry about.

Didn't microsoft use emulator software on the 360 via a software download, to make it backwards compatible? Certainly recall playing xbox games on the 360. I don't think it will harm them in the long run, just think it will hamper sales in the first year or so (particularly for parents who might have otherwise brought one for their kids where they already have a lot of games they like to play - not every parent will want two consoles in the lounge and not every parent can afford to go out and buy replacement titles). Wouldn't be surprised if some kind of emulator software ended up finding its way on to the new xbox, either by launch date or soon after via software download.

 

[mr malarky]

You can see a few snippets of the PS4 design in the video below (apologies if this has been posted before):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFgmRiqR9g4

If the link doesnt work then search youtube for PS4 E3 design 1080p

Hard to get a clear view but on first glance does seem to have much more rack-presence than the Big Black Box.

 

[bigboss]

There are a few floating around. This is another one, suggesting a different design. Don't know what to believe.

 

[MajorFubar]

...(particularly for parents who might have otherwise brought one for their kids where they already have a lot of games they like to play - not every parent will want two consoles in the lounge and not every parent can afford to go out and buy replacement titles).

Yep that will be the issue in my house. Lots of money already invested in games which will not play on the new system, and seeing that I'm not prepared to have two incompatible XBox consoles and/or re-buy the kids favourite games just so they can run on the new system, they won't be getting a One for a while.

Mind you, clearly I must be in a minority otherwise their tactics would backfire on a massive scale and the One would bomb. Which i'm sure it won't.

 

[mr malarky]

There are a few floating around. This is another one, suggesting a different design. Don't know what to believe.

That one is the 'official' teaser I think, and that suggests the previous one I posted is a fake, which is a kinda shame as the fake one actually looks better imo!

 

[AnotherJoe]

The Xbox One looks horrible. Is it just me or does it look like 2 different boxes glued together ?

http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/13129140/img/13129140.jpg

 

[mr malarky]

Looks like what it is basically, a Desktop PC on its side, in a black case.

 

[Alantiggger]

Looks like what it is basically, a Desktop PC on its side, in a black case.

Probably better off with a decent gaming pc anyway ? (build your own )

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