Differences between PS4 Pro and XbOX reveal.

[greenmedic88]

I'll start from the standpoint of a zero hype opinion as I really don't bother with the corporate salesmanship and marketing of hardware anymore. As much as I like reading about hardware specs as well as respected software developer takes on utilization, I simply don't get caught up hype anymore because I've been following the industry for too many decades.

The PS4P came off as a hardware upgrade (rather than refresh, which typically just means design simplification in the interest of reducing BoM cost as well as a shell redesign for the purpose of marketing) primarily as a complement to PSVR. It was all there in the project codenames Neo and Morpheus. Get it? So clever.

As an added bonus and "no duh" update, it could also output 4K resolution thanks to the obligatory bump in specs. If a consumer was not interested in PSVR, to be realistic, it was a pretty vanilla release perfectly complemented by its completely vanilla packaging. Seriously: look at the box.

I didn't bother watching the XBOX E3 announcement on account of already knowing everything about the specs, so it was simply the MSRP and packaging (the plastic case) that represented hard data. The $500 MSRP was as I expected for a realistically priced mid cycle upgrade (forget the "this is an $800 gaming PC" hype), and the compact packaging was the appealing surprise that demonstrated how far MS has come with their hardware design team. Will that make anyone choose a $500 box over a $250 XBOS? Probably not. Buyers will be informed buyers and presumably playing on a 4K display.

Both have the same appeal to their respective corporate fanbases. Read: brand fanboys. While hardware producers love brand loyalty and subjective preferences and all the team sports level arguments regardless of being based upon objective numbers, the reality is general public perception absolutely trumps core niche opinion. If core niche constitutes the majority of overall sales, it is safe to say a product has failed as a product intended for the general market. That would largely describe the Wii U.

Someone quoted about 2.6 m PS4P sales after about half a year/one holiday season. I read 20% of PS4 current sales are PS4P with about 40% being upgrades from existing PS4 owners.

I would expect to see similar conversion and sales rates for the XBOX.

So the E3 reveal as always is more about hype, marketing and salesmanship, but the reality is E3 largely matters to core niche audiences and industry personnel; the general public does not sit around during the work day in eager anticipation of E3 announcements during E3 week or even watch the announcements after the fact on YouTube.