Arjun Rohit Vikraman
11th November 2020
Ever since both companies had teased their respective next-gen consoles earlier this year, fans worldwide have been eagerly waiting for the release of the consoles. And now the wait is finally over. The next-generation consoles from both Microsoft and Sony are here.
Microsoft released their line-up of the 9th generation console on the 10th of November, worldwide, with the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. The Series X is priced at Rs 49,990 while the smaller Series S will cost Rs 34,990. Sony will release the PS5 and the PS5 Digital Edition on the 12th of November in North America and Europe. Both consoles don’t have a release date for India as of yet. The pricing has been revealed, though, with the PS5 costing Rs 50,000 and the PS5 Digital Edition costing Rs 40,000.
Xbox Series S and Series X (Source- Microsoft)
The Xbox Series X and Series S are the follow-ups to the Xbox One X and Xbox One S, respectively. According to the company, the Series X is among one of the most powerful gaming consoles available. It is all about performance and is targeted at those 4k-ready TV. Meanwhile, the Series S is the smallest console the company has ever released, is priced on a lower side, and is aimed at casual gamers. While both consoles will have next-gen features like Ray Tracing, 120hz gaming, and faster loading times, the main difference will the resolution at which both consoles are going to operate. The Series X is targeting a 4k resolution while the Series S is targeting 1440p or 2k resolution. Another difference between both the consoles is that the Series X has a disk drive along with 1TB of internal storage, while the Series S does not have a disk drive, which means games can only be downloaded on the console digitally. The Series S also only has half of the storage of the Series X, with 500GB.
The PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition are the follow-ups for the PS4 and the PS4 Pro. The specs for both the standard PS5 and the PS5 Digital Edition are almost the same, unlike the Xbox Series consoles, which opted for two versions of their consoles, targeted at different audiences. Both the standard and digital edition have the same level of graphics, the same design, and the same next-gen SSD. The only difference is that the standard PS5 has a disk drive while the Digital Edition lacks a disk drive. Another difference is the price because the Digital Edition costs Rs 10,000 cheaper than the standard edition because of the lack of a disk drive. Both consoles have the same storage size of 825GB, which is less than the 1TB SSD of the Series X. One feature that the PS5 will have, which is not present on either Xbox Series consoles, is the addition of 3D audio.
In terms of games at launch, both consoles will support backwards compatibility, which means they can run all of the games from the previous generation of consoles. The only difference is that the Xbox Series line of consoles can run games from the last three generations of consoles. In terms of next-gen games, the Series X/S will be able to play games like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, NBA 2K21, and Watch Dogs Legion. The PS5 will also be able to play those same games, along with the new Spiderman: Miles Morales and Demon Souls.
(Source- The Indian Express, The Times of India, Tech Radar, Republic world)
Edited by- Nivedita Dutta