Make decisions for HP (Gaming)

by ShadowOfTheVoid , South Carolina, Monday, November 11, 2013, 09:55 (3826 days ago) @ HawaiianPig
edited by ShadowOfTheVoid, Monday, November 11, 2013, 10:02

Well, I was going to early adopt one of the two systems because I wanted to play games like Watch Dogs and especially Destiny (yeah, they're cross-gen; I still want to play the best version, though), and the week of E3 I had made my choice. I'm getting a PS4 first, for several reasons:

1) Price. At $400, The PS4 costs $100 less than the XBO. $100 that can be spent on other things, like, say, a couple of games. For someone like me who doesn't have a ton of disposable income, $100 is a lot, and it takes me months to save up/pay off a big purchase like a game console. The XBO costs $100 more because of Kinect, plain and simple, and I have no interest in the device.

2) Online Services. While PSN used to be a joke, PS+ is now considered by many to be at least as good if not better than XBL Gold. As an added bonus, should I ever decide that I'm done with online gaming period, or my subscription lapses because I don't have the money to renew it, I can still use all my PS4's functions sans online play (and even then some games won't require PS+) and the Instant Game Collection. Meanwhile, MS is still locking nearly everything behind the Gold pay wall. It's easier to list the things you don't need Gold for than the things you do need it for. Basically, you can listen to CDs, watch disc-based movies, and play single-player games, things I was able to do with my PS2 more than a decade ago.

3) Games. While both systems are on par for launch window exclusives being released to retail, in the long term Sony has the advantage. MS's refusal to invest more heavily on in-house development means that the only first-party studios they have that are working on major AAA exclusives are 343I, Turn10, Lionhead, and a new group called Black Tusk, with Remedy being a de facto second party. Meanwhile, Sony has Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Polyphony Digital, Sucker Punch, Evolution Studios, Media Molecule, SCE Santa Monica, and SCE Japan Studio, as well as second parties like Quantic Dream and Ready At Dawn. If history repeats itself, the XBO might do well in the short term as MS invests in buying exclusivity rights for various games from third-party publishers, but after the first 3 years or so, they'll eventually be whittled down to Halo, Forza, Fable, and maybe one or two other games, while the PS4 will still be getting a solid stream of exclusives, most of which will be first party.

Of course, that's just retail exclusives. The PS4 is getting a huge flood of indie and other downloadable games, including Resogun, Rime, Octodad: Dadliest Catch, The Witness, and, well, everything else in this list here.

More personally, the PS4's exclusives just appeal to me more, not to mention they have a proven track record. I have no interest in Ryse, Dead Rising 3, and Forza (hack & slash games and sim racers aren't my bag), Titanfall did interest for a bit, then it was revealed that it had no single-player campaign. I was never a huge Killer Instinct fan (I liked MK the most back in the day), either. Black Tusk is a new studio and therefore they're unproven, not to mention we still know squat about what they're working on. That leaves Halo. I still like Halo, though my interest has waned a bit after Halo 4. The promise of Halo 3 immediately sold me on a 360, but 343I's efforts on Halo 4 means the promise of Halo 5 isn't enough by itself to sell me on the XBO. Even if 343I is able to reinvigorate my interest in the series and Halo 5 ends up being the best Halo ever, I'm not paying $500 for a system that'll end up being mostly another "Halo Box."

So, it was pay $400 for a system that'll have Killzone, Infamous, Knack, DriveClub (more arcade-y than Forza), and whatever ND, MM, and the rest are working on, as well as a huge selection of indie games as well as exclusive content for Destiny, or pay $500 for a system whose first interesting exclusive isn't due until next fall. The choice was easy to make: PlayStation 4. Once the price goes down to around $350 or less, I'll get an XBO, but as of right now, the combination of games, price, and other small bits of miscellany make it an unappealing choice as of the present date. Meanwhile, Sony has hit all the right notes throughout the year.

So, as for you, HP, what matters to you? Is price important? Do you like indies? Are system specs a big deal? Do Sony's exclusives appeal to you more than MS's? Then get a PS4. If money is no object and you don't mind paying $100 more for Kinect, if you like MS's exclusives better, if you think Kinect is the most awesometacular must-have accessory ever, and if specs and indie games aren't important to you, then get an XBO.