Playstation or XBOX One (1 Viewer)

[Michael Fennessy]

Ok. The systems are mature, they are at the least mid life. Both have great games. I have owned earlier versions of both consoles. I am craving the new star wars game coming out in November. I'm ready to jump. I have 2 questions. First, is this a good time to buy or should I wait until closer to November? And second, I am leaning towards xbox based on price and the kinect. Is there any thing I should know about Playstation to change my mind?

Thanks for anyone who helps.
Mike

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Let's assume you want to buy a brand new console. You have a couple options. Xbox One with Kinect currently goes for $500, but Xbox One without Kinect is as low as $300. Depends on what comes with it (500 GB or 1 TB hard drive, games, extra controllers, etc.). The PS4 is always $400. That said, there are always sales going on and there WILL be better deals come November.


Kinect isn't quite the selling point for Xbox that it used to be. Very few games REALLY take advantage of the device and pretty much no future releases have talked at all about how to support it. It's handy for navigating the console, but...I mean...is that worth $150-200 extra? For comparison, the PS4 has a camera that does similar-ish things but costs $40 (and you need to buy it separately, unless you find a bundle deal).


The Xbox One is getting a backward compatibility feature this fall/winter that will let you play a selection of 100 Xbox 360 games on the console. You can use this if you have the discs or a digital version that was purchased on an XBL account. This is a neat feature that may or may not matter to you. The PS4 has PS Now, a digital game streaming service where you can either get monthly subscriptions ($20/month or $45 for 3 months, I believe; the subscription includes a large collection of games but not every single one available) or you can rent each game individually for whatever the cost is, usually on the order of $5-10 for a month or so. That said, you cannot buy PS3 games through this service and access them for streaming whenever you want. A lot of PS3 games are getting PS4 HD re-releases, though, so that's always an option. The Xbox One is getting similar HD upgrades of last-gen games, too.

Personally, I prefer PlayStation as a platform and brand. Looking at exclusive franchises, just about everything MS has on Xbox does not interest me. I have an Xbox 360 but didn't use it for anything outside of Halo, Gears of War, or Alan Wake. The PS4 seems to be lagging the Xbox One in some features (it took a while to get a simple MP3 player app) but when it comes to using the console as an actual game playing machine, I think the PS4 is better. I have a PS3 sitting next to it, so backward compatibility isn't a huge deal. The PS4 versions of multi-console games tend to run better (higher resolution and frame rate) so if that matters to you then its something to consider.

You originally said you were leaning towards Xbox for price and Kinect. The price is lower than PS4 so long as you don't get Kinect, but it is higher than PS4 if you do get the Kinect. Another alternative is to get a refurbished Xbox from Microsoft. They're always cheaper, have the same warranty, and usually come with a game or two thrown in. Also, you can upgrade the PS4's internal HDD very easily, but you cannot upgrade the Xbox One's hard drive at all (you can only use external USB hard drives).


Both consoles require online subscription plans to play games on the internet, but you do not need those plans to use apps like Netflix or Hulu. They both also give out 2 free games per month for each platform (Xbox One and 360; PS3, PS4, and PS Vita) with just 1 subscription. On the PlayStation side, there are some games that are Cross Buy, where buying the digital PS3 version will give you the digital PS4 and digital PS Vita versions as well (if those version exist). Often, at least 2 or 3 of the free monthly games are Cross Buy games, so you can sometimes get more than just 2 on PS4.

 

[DaveF]

Lots of discussion here on the question
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/337145-thinking-of-a-gaming-console-xbox-or-playstation/

 

[DaveF]

Buy now or wait?

There will probably be some attractive bundles after Thanksgiving. Maybe even lower prices.

But that's three months away. Do you want to enjoy the three day Labor Day weekend gaming? Or is it more important to save maybe $50 and do any gaming for three more months?

 

[Bryan^H]

Ok. The systems are mature, they are at the least mid life. Both have great games. I have owned earlier versions of both consoles. I am craving the new star wars game coming out in November. I'm ready to jump. I have 2 questions. First, is this a good time to buy or should I wait until closer to November? And second, I am leaning towards xbox based on price and the kinect. Is there any thing I should know about Playstation to change my mind?

Thanks for anyone who helps.
Mike

If you are into the new Star Wars Battlefront game this 1TB system is being released with the game in November:

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Personally, I'm not a fan of the game-specific limited edition consoles. However, the PlayStation 20th Anniversary console looked nice.

Also, just throwing this out there, the early previews of Battlefront have not been too optimistic. I don't think it's going to be that great.

 

[DaveF]

Ok. The systems are mature, they are at the least mid life. Both have great games. I have owned earlier versions of both consoles. I am craving the new star wars game coming out in November. I'm ready to jump. I have 2 questions. First, is this a good time to buy or should I wait until closer to November? And second, I am leaning towards xbox based on price and the kinect. Is there any thing I should know about Playstation to change my mind?

Thanks for anyone who helps.
Mike

How about this: buy the same system your friends have so you can play online with them. Lacking that, you can't go wrong either way. Both systems have great games, good online services, and have grown past launch limitations.


I switched from a Xbox 360 to PS4 -- and I've never cared for the PS consoles -- and have enjoyed the PS4 since I got it.

 

[LeoA]

I'd vote for the PS4.


Has an equally decent slate of exclusives, is slightly more powerful, and has a controller that's quite comparable for a change (I much preferred the Controller S and the 360's controller over the Dual Shock 2 & 3).


And most of all, I liked their more consumer friendly approach at a time when Microsoft was pushing some nonsense. While Microsoft has now not only fully backtracked on these early misteps (Including making Kinect 2.0 optional), but moved the other direction with consumer friendly decisions like introducing limited backwards compatibility, I think this is a stance that deserves rewarding.


The XB1 will only be used for exclusives unless there's a compelling reason to deviate from that (Such as the XB1 build of a particular title being superior to the PS4 version).


The opposite role of the last two generations where the Nintendo and Sony platforms were only bought by me for exclusives, with few exceptions (Like Mega Man 9 & 10 on the Wii for the Nintendo quality d-pad).

 

[Tino]

Xbox one. Most of my friends are on Xbox live. I own both by the way. [emoji12]