Shoppers Can Compare New Generation of Consoles

The new generation of video game consoles have been released just in time for the holidays. With Black Friday later this week, the Xbox One and Playstation 4 should be the focus for gift-searching parents.

When the Xbox One and PS4 were announced earlier this year, both garnered a lot of excitement, but there was also heavy scrutiny, particularly for the Xbox One. The concern for the Xbox One was that it initially required you to be connected to the internet making it difficult to lend or borrow games for the console.

Microsoft eventually backed off on some of the most scrutinized features and it showed consumers were happy when pre-orders spiked.

The Xbox One is priced at $500 and provides a great gaming experience, but also being your one-stop for all your living room needs. It is even possible to plug in a cable or satellite box to will play through the Xbox One making the remote control voice activated.

The Xbox One takes very basic commands for all functions. For example, to cut the console on, just say “Xbox on” and the opposite to want it turned off.

However, there are some negatives to the system right now. When the Xbox One is first turned on, the “Day 1” update must be downloaded before the console can be used. This process can be time consuming. Also, to the frustration of many customers, the Kinect often misunderstands or does not process every voice command.

However, the main problem at the moment is there are some individual consoles on the market that won’t allow the console read a disc. Microsoft is aware of this issue, though, and is willing to work with customers who inadvertently purchase an affected machine.

The Playstation 4, released just before the Xbox One, is priced at $400, slightly less expensive than the Xbox One. Instead of being focused on television and social media, the PS4 prides itself on the gaming experience.

The PS4 console currently has more GPU (graphics processing unit) power than the Xbox One. The increased GPU allows the PS4 to supply better graphic features that its competitors.

Playstation Plus, the online subscription service, provides an excellent experience and is less expensive than Xbox Live Gold.

Right now, the PS4 has issues with the console release much like the Xbox One, including some new consoles getting the “blue light of death”. However, this problem has affected only a small percentage of the new consoles and Sony is aware of the problem.

The negative attribute of  the PS4 is that there are a limited number of games available at the moment.

Below is a list of other important specs for both the PS4 and Xbox One:

–Justin Taylor, Associate Editor, HottyToddy.com