During the course of the last year, people have revelled in the disparity between the XB1 and the PS4. This has mainly mainfested itself as resolution differences. Then, after we had word of the new freed up SKU (because of the removal of Kinect) things appeared to improve, with some titles matched on both consoles. There was still a difference in some titles but definitely less than at the beginning of this generation.

But then we started seeing titles that many believed should defnitely look better on the PS4, Destiny bringing it to a head with claims of forced parity. This was dismissed simply because the argument took into consideration that the 360/PS3 versions also existed, which was brought into the debate when Bungie spoke of 'parity', but I think it wasn't quite as clean cut as that. Something is going on the background that none of us are privy to and never will be.

Major publishers are fighting for that market and resolution has become the defacto selling point for many people (rightly or wrongly). So what has this got to do with FIFA v PES? This is what I believe is happening and I think we'll see more of it as the gap grows larger: EA are a huge publisher with close ties with Microsoft and so have been cutting back on the PS4 titles in order to reach a semblance of parity. Meanwhile, Konami have taken the opportunity to put clear water between them and EA, so revitalising a once loved franchise by offering better visuals on the PS4 while lowering the resolution on the XB1 so they can use the full feature set of their Fox engine. EA cannot afford to let this continue and will at some point have to push their engine harder. The new PES won't sell anywhere near as well as FIFA but it will make people take note and slowly but surely the PES franchise could start eating up EAs dollars.

This will set an interesting presedent going forward because many devs won't want to look last gen in the face of competition. They will have a choice: Go all out to produce the best version for the PS4 and hit a potential market of twice the install base (as of right now. Clearly it will grow) OR risk annoying the bigger install base and losing momentum to a better looking game. Yes, they may well and probably will annoy the smaller install base if they make the PS4 version better, but from a business standpoint, it's better to annoy the few than to annoy the many and money talks in this industry.

I don't think EA really have to worry. As long as they have so many licenses in football exclusively, Pro Evo is not going to offer any serious threat, unless they get the standards back up again like they did in the PS2 days.

PES fell into obscurity by continuing to release PS2 games on the 360/PS3. Granted I've not tried the demo of PES this time around yet, but unless it makes some huge steps forward, it's never going to compete even just with the fact that FIFA has all the official licenses.

The new hockey nhl and fifa 15 had disappointed me. both sold. the demo of pes15 for ps4 is fun, maybe I'll get it. just maybe. fifa vs pes? the fight, I do not care.

I'm just using PES v FIFA as an example because of the recent revelations. More and more developers will opt to push the game on the higher install base which will eventually have a knock on effect with the bigger publishers such as EA. I'm not saying this will kick in instantly, I'm saying the pressure will mount over the coming years as the gap grows much bigger. Eventually the ballance will have to be addressed and ironically the solution is to admit an imballance between the two consoles and cater to the bigger install base. It won't just be EA and Konami, eventually many publishers will be faced with the same dilemma. I would say that by the end of 2015 the PS4 will be the defacto console and most games will run better on it.

It will be nice if the most powerful system is the target system for once. For the most part in gaming the most popular system has not been the most powerful. (talking purely consoles)

I'd rather have PES the one selling more, not the Fifa.

I don't think anyone has something to gain deliberately making one version better than the other. Maybe gaining favor with one crowd but we all know that this crowd would've bought the game regardlessly.

The selling point for me would be what's easier to pick up and be good in the least amount of time. I looked at the controller options for the Fifa games and it was literally two pages full of controller inputs. It REALLY turned me away from those games...

Also and of course which is the one with the better Football/Soccer Action.

It's not about 'deliberately' making one version better than the other, it's a matter of producing the best product possible on the technology available. And as you've pointed out, people will have buy it anyway.

I did not know there was a FIFA-PES situation.