Jimquisition: Why The PS4 Is Kicking Xbox One's Arse

[Darth_Payn]

Is not a matter from "better than", is more like "less wrong", both consoles still doesn't have backward compatibility.

Dammit, you're right. Is the hardware too expensive for that?

Anyway, I'm a proud PS4 owner and it's because Microsoft basically shot themselves in both feet at the last E3.

 

[SinisterGehe]

You want to know why PS4 is winning clearly in Finland? Like without any competition?

Because there is none. Xbox One is still not out in Finland... It should release next month, but the retail shops don't guarantee it - some have hinted it could be delayed till end of summer. (And apparently is severely limited in all the fancy stuff they promised. I heard there are no voice controls - in Finnish.)
PS4 keeps selling out before from stores! And it is 100? Cheaper!

So how does Microsoft think it can just enter this market? Only people who want only to buy Xbox are going to buy it anymore, everyone else who really wanted a console got PS4.

According to M$, Finland is some wasteland without any market for gaming apparently.

 

[SinisterGehe]

Xbox One hasn't even launched here in Finland (and some other countries). It will launch THIS AUTUMN if rumours are to be believed, so there is that too.

I went to my local Anttila. And on the Preorder form they have announced next month (4th) as release. But according to the salesman - they haven't got a shipment UNTIL after summer.

Tho in Other news. My brother just got his new PS4... And paid 100? less for it than the unreleased X1. He got one of the last ones of the patch in that store because they sold out. Again.

edit:
Correction You can get import version of X1. Tho it has no guarantees of working and has no Xbox one Live support. So make of it what you will.

 

[maximara]

Nice episode, must say I agree with everything presented in it; it succinctly explains my feelings.

However I would also like to mention that Sony is also treating its internet usage with a bit more sense. Stuff like titanfall for XB1 will require 35gb of sound files to be downloaded, and this is on top of ridiculous patch sizes for other games like dead rising etc etc. Now, while my country isn't the main market for the xb1, I don't think the average USA citizen has the internet cap to keep up with all this from what I've read.

All of this, coupled with the design of windows 8 gives me the impression that Microsoft's developers are making these things for themselves, in their digital utopias, without understanding the reality of internet costs and infrastructure in the rest of their own country let alone the whole world.

###

BTW too much light on your face in this episode, Jim, looks rather horrible and overexposed. the light on the lectern was just fine though.

Even through I am a Mac user I thought Windows 7 was a mammoth step in the right direction and then I looked at Windows 8 and wondered just what Microsoft was smoking especially when that OS doesn't have an XP mode. About a third of the world is using XP so you do NOT support it. (Facepalm)

So I knew Microsoft was out of touch with how things works to some degree; but this idea of having 35gb for just sound is insane. The ENTIRE World of Warcraft game is 25 GB and that is counting every version from Burning Crusade to the now current Mists or four expansions worth of content spread out over six years.

I am surprised that the consoles are doing as well as they are because their price point even by Mac standards is kind of high...which means by PC standards they are ridiculous.

 

[Xan Krieger]

I still dont understand why indi games cant be system sellers...
Some of them are flat out better (subject to personal subjective opinion) then AAA games. Or last longer. Or have better storylines...

From a pure logistical standpoint, they do not have the marketing money to become identified with a system the way Titanfall or Uncharted can. Furthermore, their digital exclusivity means they can't really occupy shelf space in a world where physical media is still a massive influence and will obviously attract the attention from window shoppers when they're at a store looking at consoles.

It's nothing to do with their quality or superiority over AAA games. I think many indie games are as legit, if not moreso, than major publisher games. But the vast majority of console buyers are going to see them after the bigger, more widespread, physically available games get their attention.

Simple facts, nothing to do with one's opinion on whether or not indie games are good/better.

But there is at least one exception to the rule I can think of, namely Minecraft. It started as a humble little indie game and then exploded and became something I think most gamers have at least played. I know a young kid in my neighborhood who plays it on a tablet. Now if something else could be made with the same level of success that starts out on a console I think it could become a huge asset for Sony or Microsoft. It's completely possible, just unlikely.

 

[WildFire15]

Not difficult to swallow, Microsoft's attitude is terrible so far (very much them and Sony swapping positions). Main reason I got the Xbox One first is that it had games I wanted to play on it and I'll get a PS4 when there's more games I want to play on that (not sure when that is as I got to demo Infamous: Second Son, one of the games I'm interested in on PS4, and found it pretty lack luster). Xbox One's set up is pretty terrible at the moment and half the time I just use my Xbox 360 instead (better Youtube app, BBC iPlayer and Sky Player if someone's already in the living room. This desperate battle 'for the living room' Microsoft seems to think it has to engage in completely bemuses me).

 

[Lord Doomhammer]

>consoles
>still relevant

Spoiler

Paying to play games on the internet, after paying for internet service is not a justifiable model, no matter how much 'free content' they try to add. Both companies are wrong and pathetic so long as this little thing called THE INTERNET exists.

And Jim, the day that indie games influence me to buy a 400-500$ plus piece of tech, is to quote Yahtzee 'the day I swallow razor wire, pull the end out of my ass, and floss myself to death.'

 

[GonzoGamer]

I just don't understand all this Indie love, there are only a couple of Indie games that I have enjoyed and one is Minecraft. I am also getting sick of the PS+ love. PS+ deserved love until they used it to lock multiplayer behind a paywall. Even though PS+ is just full of Indie bullshit that I don't care to play, I still think it deserved praise until they validated Live Gold. Just when the masses were finally turning against Microsoft for charging for multiplayer, Sony validated it and most people just go on pretending that PS+ is the same as it was last gen.

I can appreciate the indie love because it's those weird B games (like Katamari Damacy) that keep ps relevant. However, I'm not going to get ps+ or an expensive machine for the couple I would want to play.
The sick thing is that while watching Sony's reveal at E3 I was all ready to pre-order the ps4 and sign up my ps3 to ps+ (if just for the big middle finger they raised to MS that day but really because + could be a good value) until I saw that ps+ would be required for online play. That turned me off right there. Now-a-days with local multiplayer going all but extinct and online multiplayer adding up to more than half the content of some games, you'd be wasting half the money you spend on AAA games if you didn't subscribe to +/live. Also, if I had bought a ps4 at launch and they support it for as long as they predict, it'll really cost me over $900; most of which is spent to play content, I already paid for at the store. It feels like a bully asking for your lunch money.
According to Sony the fee is because they added all the fancy video recording and crap like that. So my question is, why don't they hold those features hostage? The answer I guess is that they expect to make more off the people that will subscribe to ps+ than they will lose off people they've turned off to their brand. I've been a ps customer for a while now, I know its going to start off with all these great features they're working on and how the vita wil bla bla with it but over time they wont be brought up anymore and existing features will start to disappear. Then the constant firmware updates will only futile attempts to combat piracy.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

According to M$, Finland is some wasteland without any market for gaming apparently.

Well, it is compared to all the other territories Xbox One has launched in already. Aside from Austria, Australia, and New Zealand every country it has launched in has a higher population than all Nordic countries combined.

Shouldn't the inhabitants of low-population European countries that don't share an official language with high-population countries just be accustomed to getting consoles later?

 

[Lono Shrugged]

D'awwwwww You big softie. That ending was nice. Good to see some positive waves being spread.

 

[Pebkio]

What was up with your lighting? The tiny suns you were using made your face glow and I could clearly see the shadows of your hands on your chest. And I don't like the color green. Plus your glasses were different.

You shouldn't change anything, 'cause I don't like things that are different.

On a more serious note: Duh.

The only real contention of fanboyism is to say that "it will always be this way". And you didn't, so only fanboys will call you a fanboy. Additionally (because I saw someone predict this) the Xbox One is shit and everything good you just brought up about the PS4 can be done better on the PC. Mostly because backwards compatibility is a thing.

 

[WeepingAngels]

I just don't understand all this Indie love, there are only a couple of Indie games that I have enjoyed and one is Minecraft. I am also getting sick of the PS+ love. PS+ deserved love until they used it to lock multiplayer behind a paywall. Even though PS+ is just full of Indie bullshit that I don't care to play, I still think it deserved praise until they validated Live Gold. Just when the masses were finally turning against Microsoft for charging for multiplayer, Sony validated it and most people just go on pretending that PS+ is the same as it was last gen.

I can appreciate the indie love because it's those weird B games (like Katamari Damacy) that keep ps relevant. However, I'm not going to get ps+ or an expensive machine for the couple I would want to play.
The sick thing is that while watching Sony's reveal at E3 I was all ready to pre-order the ps4 and sign up my ps3 to ps+ (if just for the big middle finger they raised to MS that day but really because + could be a good value) until I saw that ps+ would be required for online play. That turned me off right there. Now-a-days with local multiplayer going all but extinct and online multiplayer adding up to more than half the content of some games, you'd be wasting half the money you spend on AAA games if you didn't subscribe to +/live. Also, if I had bought a ps4 at launch and they support it for as long as they predict, it'll really cost me over $900; most of which is spent to play content, I already paid for at the store. It feels like a bully asking for your lunch money.
According to Sony the fee is because they added all the fancy video recording and crap like that. So my question is, why don't they hold those features hostage? The answer I guess is that they expect to make more off the people that will subscribe to ps+ than they will lose off people they've turned off to their brand. I've been a ps customer for a while now, I know its going to start off with all these great features they're working on and how the vita wil bla bla with it but over time they wont be brought up anymore and existing features will start to disappear. Then the constant firmware updates will only futile attempts to combat piracy.

Yes, it's funny to me how people shit on Microsoft for their online paywall (and rightfully so) but give Sony a pass because they were smart enough to get people hooked on PS+ before adding their paywall. There is no doubt in my mind that once they have many more people paying for PS+ they will start dropping some of the sweets.

PS+ operated on the basis that PS+ members were subsidized by people who actually bought the "free" games. That doesn't work when you have many many more gamers not buying games because they are waiting for them to hit PS+.

It's kinda like with adblock, the majority of people look at ads and subsidize the ad free viewing of those who use adblock but when the majority block ads, things have to change.

 

[r_phix]

Bottom line, people who call others fanboys are fanboys themselves. You don't need to listen to those people and they certainly don't have anything constructive to say.

Well... it is not enough to claim something to make it true; or else this is nothing more than an authoritarian argument. Personally, I only own a PC and a 3DS; I don't care about Nintendo being the best or whatever, and I don't care about console war; but I can spot fanboys pretty easily.

 

[Raesvelg]

Heh, this video is laughable. Both systems over their lifespans will sell a comparable amount of units. Most people aren't upgrading to EITHER system because of their currently being no good reason to do so. I would be curious to see the XBOX 360/1 and Ps3/4 sales numbers for the same time period.

That's the sort of comparison that's difficult to make for a variety of reasons. On a pure numbers standpoint, launching at roughly the same time of year (mid-November), Microsoft claimed to have shipped about 1.5 million Xbox360s by the end of the year. Sony's numbers on the PS3 are a bit more difficult to quantify; much like with Microsoft, units shipped do not necessarily equate to units sold. However, Sony's claimed numbers pretty closely match those of Microsoft, if slightly higher at around 1.7 million.

In comparison, the Xbox One and PS4 shipped 3 million and 4.2 million consoles over roughly the same period (mid November to Dec 31).

The caveat here is that both the PS3 and Xbox360 experienced significant shortfalls in supply for that period. Microsoft pushed the 360 out in a remarkably short time period (likely a major factor in the whole RROD fiasco), while Sony was faced with a massive shortage of Blu-ray laser emitters.

Odds are that both manufacturers learned their lesson from the previous launch and decided to make sure they had significantly more consoles on hand, and much more reliable supply chains before they started this generation.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

EDIT: Okay ninja'd. But that's piss poor garm-jurnalizm if you ask me. Sony is beating MS because they're available in 40 more markets. So even if MS just doubles the amount of markets they sell to, they win, hands down. Now that's something to think about.

Not necessarily. Not all markets are the same size, or have the same amount of enthusiasm for the Microsoft product. The Xbone is already available in the key Xbox-friendly markets, so other territories are likely to result in diminishing returns.

 

[theApoc]

Heh, this video is laughable. Both systems over their lifespans will sell a comparable amount of units. Most people aren't upgrading to EITHER system because of their currently being no good reason to do so. I would be curious to see the XBOX 360/1 and Ps3/4 sales numbers for the same time period.

I am a little surprised at how little Jim understands about what would have been possible if MS had not caved to the vocal minority and left the system as was intended. One of the reasons the next gen doesn't feel so innovative is the fact that they eliminated a bunch of things that would have paved the way for full featured digital distribution and gaming... there was more to always online than DRM.

Another person who pulls out the 'vocal minority' card....the preorders for the XBONE before the backpedal disagree with you.Also Microsoft pretty much wanted to shove a long metal spike up everyone's ass with the original XBONE,their 'future' was the epitome of anti consumerism and the fact people actually think that's a good thing makes them a bunch of fools.

That makes no sense. To say that MS was planning on screwing their customer base, simply because of always online is ridiculous. It was ridiculous when people got up in arms about it last summer, and it is ridiculous now. The only thing people's outrage showed us was that most of the gaming community is dead set on clinging to the past...

 

[DrOswald]

>consoles
>still relevant

Spoiler

Paying to play games on the internet, after paying for internet service is not a justifiable model, no matter how much 'free content' they try to add. Both companies are wrong and pathetic so long as this little thing called THE INTERNET exists.

You do know that the internet doesn't run on good vibes generated from the pure flow of information, right? Internet based services are run by servers. Servers cost a lot of money. Good servers cost even more. Enough good servers to run a worldwide multiplayer service costs a large fortune. The console providers have a decision to make: provide a shitty, half-assed multiplayer service and destroy the one thing they have going for them over PC (a relatively hassle free experience) or charge a small monthly fee to provide a useful and good service.

And don't say "but the PC does it for free!" because it does not. PC multiplayer service is a joke. Besides a few highly successful titles PC multiplayer service is generally very poor. Many games, even high profile games, barely even function.

If I could pay $5 a month for greatly improved multiplayer on my PC I would do it today and never look back.

 

[Toadfish1]

To prove you're no fanboy, Jim, how about one on why the Xbox One is absolutely crushing the WiiU?

 

[jackpipsam]

I personally disagree.

Xbox One has had more updates and more exclusive games thus far.

Indies are fantastic, but honestly it's not worth buying a console over if you have a half decent PC.

Also as an Australian, Sony hasn't done anything for me yet.
The lack of any servers Australian side makes LIVE worth it for the faster speeds and if the 360/PS3 is any indication prices are cheaper on the store on Xbox One over PS4.