Bidness Etc looks at some details and conclude if the green side has a better proposition
Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox One has been trailing Sony Corporation’s (NYSE:SNE) Playstation 4 since its launch. While the latter has sold more than 25 million units since its launch in November 2013, Xbox One was last reported to have 10 million units sold to retailers, while estimates put it around 12-13 million consoles sold to customers.
The reason why Xbox One has had trouble catching up with Sony’s Playstation 4, is the fact that it received quite a lot of negativity when it was unveiled. The console was presented as an all-in-one Entertainment Box with not much focus on the thing that matters most – the games. Sony was right from the beginning with its game-centric approach earning it massive respect and attention. But since Xbox One’s launch, the console has undergone serious changes and appears to have finally turned its image around. This began with the change in Xbox’s leadership, when Microsoft handed over the authority to someone who was a gamer himself. Since then, Xbox One has been on the rise and Microsoft has been making tremendous effort to ramp up Xbox One’s appeal and value. Last year, Microsoft announced the Games With Gold program that grants Xbox Live Gold members free games each month on Xbox One and Xbox 360. This was in direct competition with Sony’s Playstation Plus program. It also removed the pay-wall behind apps like Netflix and Skype, and started to focus on games and first-party exclusives. Recently, Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, stated that Microsoft's strategy was to focus on first-party content than chase third-party deals. Call of Duty has been synonymous with the Xbox brand since the Xbox 360 and every Downloadable Content was made available first on Xbox. This however has changed, as Call of Duty has switched camps to Playstation 4.
Microsoft’s announcements certainly reflect Mr. Spencer’s statement. Xbox One has seen some major first party announcements since last year, extending to 2015 and 2016. Games like Halo 5, Crackdown 3, Forza Motorsport 6, ReCore, Sea of Thieves and Gears of War 4 are but a few. Microsoft dropped the bomb this E3 when they announced that Backwards Compatibility would be coming to Xbox One. This was massive news as the Playstation 4 has no such native feature. And starting from September, Xbox Live Gold members will receive four games every month, since Xbox 360 games offered through this program have now been made compatible with Xbox One. Add in the fact that the Xbox One is now 50$ cheaper than the Playstation 4, and there are frequent bundles that run from time to time, for the same price.
Playstation 4’s multiplatform versions have been constantly superior to Xbox One, with the latter running many games at 900p, compared to 1080p on the former. Xbox One is less powerful in comparison, hence will remain a step behind all its life. The gap will narrow with time but Xbox One can never surpass the Playstation 4. If you are okay with playing games at a lower resolution, then Xbox One, for 2015 at least, is a great purchase. Given the fact that the competition has an empty exclusive window in the fourth quarter of 2015, Xbox One will be receiving three brand new exclusives, with the portfolio extending to 2016. So if you have been waiting to pick up an Xbox One, Microsoft has just made the decision easier for you.
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