| EricHiggin said: Power matters more if you're lacking elsewhere. MS has lacked in high end titles so they need something else to boost their image. Nin doesn't care about performance much because they don't need to for more than a few reasons. SNY cares enough and also understands what too much of a hardware power focus can do, or can't. MS also needs to strengthen AAA games if they want to make much progress, but the power narrative will help in general. There certainly will be people who want the XBSX simply because it'll be marketed as the worlds most powerful console. That's one of the things that hooked me at the time of the PS3. The unlimited potential of the cell had me cross eyed and drooling at that point in my life. Now if SNY hasn't completely lost their mojo, they will market PS5 as the worlds fastest console as one of their hooks. This will mean more to some than power, and it will also confuse those who don't understand what that difference really means for a console. This would put the pressure on MS to deliver superb marketing and messaging. In terms of resolution, I don't see the same thing happening this gen. Both will be marketed as 4k/60 devices and should hold true for both early on with third party cross gen titles for a while. That narrative will stick for casuals well into the future. The hardcore will know the smaller details behind the scenes though, especially as the gen rolls along. As for price, it again, depends a lot on Lockharts existence. Assuming it's just PS5 and XBSX, worst case scenario, both will cost the same, so $499 each. If SNY feels that MS has control over the narrative and that enough gamers are leaning towards XBSX, they will make sure they undercut XBSX by $50-$100. SNY would and could since it's much more important to them to get as many consoles as possible under TV's compared to MS. While SNY hasn't shown to care about dropping PS4 prices in comparison to XB1S, they also didn't care to drop them much for PS3 later either. SNY has always boasted about their cheap launch prices, except for that while the PS3 sub was massive, it was still too expensive. While it certainly looks as if MS subsidized XB1X to some degree, it's likely that a subsidy for XBSX would put it at $499. A $449 PS5 would steer some back to SNY, where as a $399 PS5 would be a problem for MS in multiple ways. XBSX would not only be $100 more, but XB1X would have to drop to $299 on shelves immediately or they might as well discontinue it at that point. PS4 Pro would also have to drop to $299, but that won't be a problem for SNY since Pro isn't the leap that XB1X was, if they don't discontinue it that is. That's not to say we would have another gen just like this. I think a $399 PS5 vs a $499 XBSX would be a closer battle than last gen, but it would take some pretty dumb moves by SNY to have it be neck and neck. |
If you are looking at it, as next gen are only going to be running current gen games and game engines sure.. however Consoles are not just going to sit on par with each other. Next gen games are not going to sit using todays gaming engines or settings and only adding for 4k/60 to them. If that was the case I will agree with you, however games are going to be design with next gen in mind, pushing the limits of these consoles, using new and more demanding engines, and the console with the better specs will be dishing out better effects, frames or resolution stability etc.
We need to take into account that games will also be evolving and will be pushing these systems, Just think of the next Unreal Engine (5) games will be pushing effects, visuals, textures etc and that's where we will see what we saw this gen, some games will have more objects on screen, some games will have better lighting and shadowing, some games will have more grass and better draw distances etc. Its no different to how PC cards work, some games requires tune downs to keep a steady 60 or native 4k etc.
