The Xbox One retails for $500- a full $100 more than the PlayStation 4- but it is weaker hardware, and not just on paper, but also in tangible terms, as PS4 games have consistently outperformed Xbox One games since launch.
This is an unlucky combination- more expensive and less powerful- but Microsoft’s Alan Bowman downplayed the power gap, saying that the difference was ‘fairly marginal.’
“We’ve got a unique value proposition, and from just a pure specs perspective it’s always gonna be a fairly marginal difference. The purists are gonna argue the toss, but I think it comes down to the games.”
He added, “You’re gonna see great exclusive games on Xbox One, and when you look at the cross-platform games, and there’s gonna be exclusive content on Xbox One. We’d like to be in more markets – this is a global business – but it’s also a long-term business, and we’ll progressively launch in more markets over the coming year.”
So far, multi platform games have consistently performed worse on the Xbox One, and they usually launch with additional content on the PlayStation 4 version (such as Assassin’s Creed IV), so Microsoft does not have a point to make there. Admittedly, they do offer better exclusive games at the moment- Killer Instinct, Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3, and Ryse are all better than Killzone Shadow Fall or Knack- but this is before Sony has flexed its considerable first party muscle.
We’ll see whether consumers are willing to part with a hundred more bucks for the Xbox One in the coming months.