Hey guys! Welcome back to 3 Lives Left. Apologies for not posting in a while but fear not, I am here to give you all of the new information on the next-gen consoles. XBOX was the winner of the last round, but who will win this one? Let's find out.
Starting with the PS4.
Here is the design of the brand new PS4. In the last round I made a big deal of how slick I thought the design of the XBOX One is, but the PS4, to me, seems a lot slicker.
Now, as it has seemed for a while now, and was confirmed at their conference at E3, Sony's focus definitely seems to be on gamers. The console is being sold and marketed as a games console, not as an entertainment system, although these functions will still be available.
PS4 will offer their users the use of their current and additional media services, and a subscription to Playstation Plus will not be needed to access these features. You will also not need a Playstation Plus subscription to access single-player games. In addition, the cost of the PS+ subscription is said to cost UNDER $5. So for the price of a couple of pounds, dollars and euros, you can access all of the services that PS4 have to offer. and from what I can tell, these services seem to be the same to those of XBOX One. Baring mind that XBOX Live customers are already paying £6 p/m, this is a very good deal.
On top of this, Sony Pictures will also offer and exclusive programming network on PSN and PS4 - No surprise. In addition, PS4 will launch and offer a Live Events Viewer that aims to deliver huge live sporting events e.g. WWE PPV's, NBA, NHL etc.
Watch Dogs and Assassins Creed IV Black Flag are not exclusive to PS4, but judging by the fact that both of Ubisoft's next massive titles turned up on Sony's stage and not Microsoft's, there seems to be an alliance forming. Not only did you see exclusive trailers for the games, there were people from Ubisoft to treat the crowd at E3 to actual game-play. Quite interestingly, PS4 and Bethesda have partnered to offer users The Elder Scrolls Online, which also includes a beta version.
PS4 are also huge on indie titles with the following titles just some of the indie games you can come to expect on the PS4:
- Knack
- Outlast
- Secret Ponchos
- Don't Starve
- Ray's The Dead
Now for the big news, most probably the biggest and most well received news at E3 so far. PS4 promise that they will support used games. So it has been made possible that you can still borrow games from friends or go into CeX, Game, Gamestop or any other retail shop that you choose and purchase a pre-owned game and use it on your console for no extra charge, unlike XBOX One.
PS4 also promise that there will be no need for disc based games to have an online connection in order to play. This is great news for folks out there like myself who have very poor internet connection, or even for those people out there who do not possess and internet connection, again, unlike XBOX One.
Very, very promising indeed.
Now, Xbox One.
Before watching the XBOX One conference at E3 I was excited for lots of games, lots of new great details about the machine and the immersive-ness that would be offered alongside their games. But once finished, I felt underwhelmed, disappointed.
The conference and the XBOX One offered only 4 big announcement. They are as follows:
- A brand new open-world Metal Gear Solid title: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
- Exclusive new game: Ryse: Son of Rome
- Exclusive new game: Titanfall (from the makers of CoD: MW2)
- Exclusive new (old) game: Killer Instinct
In addition to this, XBOX One showed a second trailer for Quantum Break, Battlefield 4 and only some indie games, namely Minecraft. Moreover, it was stated that XBOX One would move away from Microsoft Points and move to local currency. Other than this, some of their team showcased the autosave clip/upload feature and the livestream feature through Twitch.
All in all, very disappointing from Microsoft and XBOX One.
For me, Sony and PS4 win the round hands-down on every section: Console design, support of indie developers, backwards compatibility, support of game sharing, online connection not needed.
That is it for the round. I'm sure there will be at least one more. Thanks for reading you guys.
Don't forget to comment if you have any thoughts.