Microsoft's MSFT +0.23% Xbox One and Sony's PS4 are finally on the market, and both I and the gaming population at large have had plenty of time to play, experiment with, and break the much-vaunted next generation of console gaming. The question remains: are these machines worth the price tag in the waning days of 2013?
Many readers already have their console, or have already answered this question with a resounding yes. For anyone without that commitment, conviction, or large pile of easily accessible cash, the answer is a likely no.
Consoles rarely hit the market fully-formed, and these two machines are no exception. PS4 is a slick little machine, but it just isn’t launching with enough exclusive software to justify making the leap — you’ve only got four games that you can’t play anywhere else, and in my estimation, only one of those is any good. Even a more generous appraisal doesn’t spell $400+ worth of gaming excitement.
The Xbox One has a deeper and more enjoyable software bench, but you’ll still burn through it fairly quickly, and it’s nowhere near what it will be once some third-party developers start churning out games. On top of that, the general consensus is that the “king of the entertainment center” functionality shows a lot of promise, but isn’t quite fully-formed yet.
Add into that the uncommon, but still present, specter of potential hardware problems — faulty disc drives for the Xbox One, screwy HDMI ports for the PS4, and you’ve got a compelling argument to just wait and see how these new machines develop over the course of 2014.
The important thing to remember is that these consoles have no place to go but up. For Microsoft and Sony, there’s actually a powerful incentive to avoid launching with any of their top-flight exclusives. The hardest of the hardcore gamers were sure to gobble up any and all available machines whether they could do anything with them or not, so the companies could reserve their Halos and their Uncharteds for later, when fanboys have been placated and it’s time to start attracting a mass market.
Both the Xbox One and PS4 have moved 1 million+ units already, with many more PS4s to come in the international release, and many more of both throughout December. This means that the AAA publishers of the world have enough reason to crank out as many titles as they can, and that’s great news for these machines. Next Christmas season we’ll probably have two machines with a wealth of hardware and software problems ironed out, as well as a deep suite of new releases that can only be experienced on new tech. There might even be a price drop.
If you want to see why you might want these consoles, here are my pre-release lists. There’s every reason to wait on what are bound to be two great consoles geared toward two slightly different gamer audiences, but not many compelling reasons to brave hardware shortages and pick one up now. Get a Wii U, build a PC, or just be patient.
