Xbox One and PS4 Comparison

It has been almost a year since the release of the next generation gaming consoles, Xbox One and PS4, so it seems appropriate to have a comparison between the two and decide which one a person should really be spending their money on. There are two big factors that should be looked at when deciding which one of these consoles to purchase, the first is looking and at the hardware and what can be done on each one and second is obviously the cost that must be paid in order to obtain one.

            I would like to start by first comparing the similarities and differences between Xbox One and PS4.  Many of the similarities come from comparing the hardware between each console. The general hardware similarities for each console are 8 GB of RAM, 8 core processors, and 500 GB hard drive. A big difference in hardware that stands out is the 500 GB hard drive that comes with the PS4 can be removed and replaced with a bigger one or a solid state drive if that is what the user prefers, where as the Xbox One hard drive can not. This is surprising that the Xbox One does not have this functionality because its predecessor, the Xbox 360, was able to change out different sized hard drives very easily. Another Similarity is that each system has an online subscription that a user pays for in order to play with other users through the Internet around the world. The subscription for PS4 is called PlayStation Plus and for Xbox One it is called Xbox Live Gold. With the use of the Internet each console has the ability to download third party applications. Many of these applications can be downloaded onto both systems; one of the more popular applications is Netflix, which is where the next big difference comes from. On PS4 a user can download and use Netflix without having to be a PlayStation Plus member, with the Xbox One a user must be a member of Xbox Live Gold to use the Netflix application. A user can view this negatively since they must not only pay for Netflix but also for Xbox Live Gold to use the Netflix application. Those are just a few of the similarities and differences between the consoles to give a broad overview of what a common user is going to experience between them. The next thing to discuss is the cost.

            As of today the cost of each console is $399, which means that a user must think very carefully about what they are going to use their new gaming console for and what that is really going to end up costing them. As mentioned before the each console has an option for a subscription that allows for gaming online with other users. For a twelve month subscription PlayStation Plus costs $49 and Xbox One costs $59. If a user is just looking to use a console for many of the applications that can be downloaded and is not interested in online gaming, then the PS4 could be argued to be a better option since they would not have to purchase PlayStation Plus in order to use applications like Netflix. Again the user must look at what they are going to be using the console for and to not be blinded by the fact that the initial price for each is $399.

            Overall there are a few differences to the hard drive, application use, and a little price difference for subscriptions, but they are also very similar when looking at what the general user is going to encounter with these systems. The main thing that a user must keep in mind is what they want from their next generation console and what it is really going to cost.

Sources

http://www.ign.com/wikis/xbox-one/PS4_vs._Xbox_One_vs._Wii_U_Comparison_Chart

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox360/accessories/xboxlive/xboxlive12monthgoldsubcard

http://www.playstation.com/en-us/explore/playstation-plus/