the ps4 appears to be more powerful than the xbox One, than the ps3 was to the xbox 360. and instead of costing $100-$300 more, the ps4 cost $100 less.

and besides ive yet to see games like Uncharted 2 and 3, Killzone 3, God of War 3 and Assension, and The Last of Us be able to be made on other consoles.

If you owned a company and could make an extra $50-$100 per unit on a product that you expect to sell 100 million units of, would you consider it a big deal?

If you were a consumer, and you had 3 product options offering similar experiences, but one was the cheapest, which would you buy?

The answers to those questions should tell you if it is a big deal.

Yes, I agree with you. Last time we have complicated architecture with PS3 so developers couldn't ble able to squeeze more out of it at the beginning and also the difference was less when compared to this time. Also the architecture which PS4 uses is developer friendly so we can see more differences between PS4 and Xbone this time, especially better gameplay(with AI, Physics) and visuals this time in PS4. I think we can see some innovations from Sony studios in new IP's and a great story telling games which will be matching Hollywood Movies in a interactive and adventurous journey which we dreamt of.

That's predicated on the assumption that you KNOW that it'll still sell 100 million units if it's no different in performance to the Xone to begin with. And considering that the bulk of the games sold on both platforms will be multiplats regardless, that kind of thinking isn't any less of a gamble IMO.

But since the bulk are multiplats, the power won't matter.  But no matter what the end sales totals are, the extra profit per unit is massive.

Powerful systems rarely win the generation (they're too expensive, and that does get passed on to the consumer eventually) but they rarely do poorly, either. It's a safe bet.

And because most of the games sold will be multiplats, exclusives will become a far more important selling point. Having more powerful hardware for less will be a much better selling point in light of that, as it will allow devs to really get more out of the PS4 on it's own. That puts the PS4 in a good position in both the short term and the long term.

Beyond that...for me personally, I don't want Sony to just play it safe if they can offer more power in a developer-friendly box. Simply doing one over the other in terms of power vs. dev accessibility hobbled them badly this generation; it took years for even the first party devs to really dig into the Cell and get the most out of it. This gen, Sony is offering much better hardware that's still very similar to what the Xone is running for $100 less. I really want to see what devs do with that.

@BigLittle: I don't know if that's true because PS2 was the weakest of the remaing consoles and had support for years. It was market leader but still power had nothing to do with it.

@Ducks: Yes, people will understand when somebody says something is 50% better. Though, more power doesn't always equal better. Besides, most consumers won't even know it is 50% more powerful. They will judge the system based on many things, mainly games & price. Power will be an afterthought.

@hsrob: That's what I was trying to explain, will a few games taking advantage of the bit of extra power really be worth it?

@Turkish: I don't think many will. The fact that the answer to which is more powerful isn't obvious says something. Besides, was the small graphic advantage for less than 5 games really worth having? (from a business perspective)

@Mvp4: To developers, yes. How does that benefit consumers though? I highly doubt developers will start making PS4 exclusives because it's easier to develop for.

@Porcupine: It is lower in cost because XB1 comes with Kinect and other extra features. Sony could be using the $ for something else so that answers your question to "why not?"

@Ajescent: I agree, the controller is much more important that a little extra power that only the most core will likely care about. DS4 does look very nice indeed.

@TLSF: That's what I was thinking. The money could've been used better IMO.