Aside from all the obvious hate in terms of the poor design choices (privacy kinect concerns, trading games and required internet connection) the direct competition, the play station 4, has gambled and come out the more appealing system (at this stage, anyway).
Sony originally aimed at having a lower memory count on their GPU, at a higher clock speed (which would have put the two consoles in the different power delivery with comparable results category, probably with the Microsoft systems higher memory capacity giving it an edge). As it turned out, technological improvements allowed Sony to add more memory on the their GPU chip while retaining the higher clock speed, allowing them to vastly improve the consoles potential processing power and ultimately leading to a very similar console architecture that is simply faster than the xbox ones. Naturally fanboys will crap on about how different systems are different and better benchmarks don't translate blah blah blah. That's bullshit, they are both X86 based systems, and while the operating systems will play a role (and are unique/different) in performance, there's simply no argument that faster processing capabilities is better than an otherwise identical lower clocked system. That doesn't mean that Sony won't balls up the software side of things, but the hardware is indisputably more capable based on what we currently know. Here's a neat little
breakdonwn
Sony win another tick for their online service. I've been saying for years that xbox live is terrible value and and terrible service (as is obvious to anyone who is primarily a PC gamer). My PS3 online gaming is every bit as good (in some ways superior) to my xbox 360's. The ongoing (high) cost of xbox live is now larger a deterrent to many people as Sonys alternative is not unproven (as it was at the beginning of the last console generation). There is no risking a shit online service if you choose Sony, we know it gets the job done well (though I do think it's interesting how quickly gamers have forgotten Sonys stunning show of incompetence and loathing for their fans in the lead up to PSN getting hacked).
Is it true as well that the PS4 will be cheaper on release than the xbox one? A quick jump on wikipedia suggests as much, but surely that can't be right can it? At any rate, the cost factor of the microsoft unit does not look good, as it appears to be a less complete package (anyone remember microsoft wanting an additional $150 for a wireless card on the xbox 360?). There is a little bit more known about the network support on the PS4, and apparently it comes bundled witha headset (which is nice), the 500GB HDD can be easily changed (this wasn't the case for the last xbox and I doubt it is for the next one) and there is room for the sony unit to broadcast to/from other devices (vita, android phones etc).
TL;DR
Right now, what we know about the consoles suggests that the Sony product is superior in some areas to the Microsoft product. As best as I can tell, there are no areas that the Microsoft system can boast similar.
Just for the record as well, I won't be buying a PS4 due to an ethical boycott from Sony products. Their treatment of Xperia X10 buyers as well as their fuck ups with the PS3 (like removing linux, inadequate security) have cost my faith in them. As such, I'm hardly a "sony fanboy" and the opinions expressed above are genuinely rational based on the evidence presented.
NameIsRobertPaulson said:
They lower prices in order to make themselves the most attractive option in a competitive market.
And of course, when it became apparent that lower prices weren't enough to convince people to willingly use their steam DRM service, they too aggressive action to encourage people to use their service. The community features aren't cheap to develop or implement, it's fucking monumental. And that's the small part of it, free to play titles such as TF2 and DOTA2 encourage people to use their service.
Anyone with shit internet said:
oh fuck steams offline and I can't play the games I paid for..But I guess I spend more time using the free content that they have provided, no other service offers me as much, nor are they as cheap, so I'll soldier through the inconvenience as they make it worth my while.