Oh the console wars. I'm more than happy to bash a company that is doing in what in my opinion are stupid decisions, but ultimately it's because I'm a fan and I hate to see them make stupid decisions. Ultimately I want to own everything. I want own a Vita, will I ever? At some point probably, though Sony's weird insistence on proprietary expensive memory has made me hold back so far. More to the point, though I certainly plan on picking up a PS4 first for various reasons (hopefully with a little luck I'll have one early Friday morning as my schedule has worked out so that I have the opportunity to camp out at Best Buy for a midnight launch), I do plan on owning an Xbox One down the line as well. Still debating which one to get first though? Well here are 5 reasons to to actually get an Xbox One first, followed by 5 reasons to get a PS4 first:
5. You are already in the ecosystem: Odds are you own an Xbox 360 if you are reading this. Do you care about your online identity, friends and/or Gamerscore and want that to continue? Yup than Xbox One is the way to go. Sony admittedly has done a fairly mediocre job making their trophies as attractive and admittedly though I am not a huge online gamer I played way more online MP on the 360 than the PS3 and I hardly doubt I'm alone there so if these are things that are important to you it's a pretty good reason to buy an Xbox One first.
3. The power of the cloud: I know it's become a stupid buzz term, but cloud technology is something everybody including Sony is at least dipping their toes in, and MS is betting big that it is key to the future of gaming. It's a good chance that it is and it being such a central pillar for the Xbox One means most likely any big cloud gaming advancements will almost certainly be on Xbox One first, and possibly never on the PS4.
2. A Stronger lineup (at least initially): Dead Rising 3 looks better than any PS4 launch game IMHO. Any does any PS4 exclusive have more buzz than Titanfall, which will be out in just 4 months? Nope. And if we are strictly comparing game line-ups from E3, MS easily had a stronger showing. Sony didn't have a really good answer for stuff like Sunset Overdrive and Project Spark. Will this be the same a couple years down the line? Who knows, but at least the first couple of years seem to favor the Xbox One based on line-up and history. And MS can always bring out their bags of money to lock up more exclusives.
1. Xbox Live: Pretty much the defining trait of the 360 at this point is Live. Sure, nearly every feature is behind a paywall, but Microsoft has been able to get away with that because the Xbox Live service is virtually unparalleled. Essentially if online functionality is of utmost importance to you, be it apps, online play or whatever, be assured that MS is pouring all it's expertise and resources possible into making sure Live is once again a great selling point for their console.
And now 5 reasons to buy a PS4 first:
5. It's cheaper: Granted, at the end of the day, you shouldn't let a $100 price difference be the ultimate determining factor in which console you buy first (in fact it could actually be argued that if you can afford it you should buy the more expensive console first because the other one will be even cheaper down the line), but given that the consoles are roughly the same (and especially that the PS4 might actually be more powerful) and the games outside of a couple of exclusives you may not care about are the same, why not save the money? Especially if like me, you don't care about gamerscore and have no particular brand loyalty.
4. The Sony Legacy Library: Granted, we don't know exactly when it's coming, but when Gakai launches, you'll supposedly be able to access Sony's fairly vast library of older titles. Considering MS basically said it was "too hard" to stream older titles, this is a good selling point, especially if (hopefully) you can access your digital purchases from your PS3. If I can access my digital library on my PS3, I'll certainly have very little reason to hold onto it which would be great.
3. PS Plus/Free Apps: Ok so you have to pay for multi-player on PS4. For some that's a real turn off, but guess what you get with it? Free games and insane Steam-level sales, that's what. Also don't do MP? That's cool because every other online feature is completely free, even free to play online games. That's a huge selling point for me and many others.
2. More exclusives (probably): Granted MS certainly has the money to lock up as many exclusives, but they don't have the army of internal development studios Sony has and that really showed the last few years as 360 exclusives boiled down to nothing and the PS3 flourished with them. Sony is also clearly the preferred indie console, with many games showing up on the PS4 first if they are showing up on the Xbox One at all. Given that a large majority of titles will be on both, I'm more likely to be interested in the one that has more exclusive offerings at first.
1. There will be no Japanese game scene on the Xbox One: Sure, FFXV & Kingdom Hearts III will be on the Xbox One as well, but those are huge worldwide tentpole titles. What about the next gen Disgaea, Tales or Persona titles? What about the next gen games from Level 5? Japan may have taken a backseat this generation, but plenty of awesome games still came out from the land of the rising sun and pretty much none of them were on the 360 except for very early stuff like Blue Dragon and Tales of Vesperia. If we are going to see a resurgence in Japanese game development, it certainly won't be on the Xbox One.
Ok there you have it, 5 pretty good reasons to justify buying either console first, but yes eventually toss aside the fanboy bullshit and own both, because otherwise all you are doing is denying yourself some awesome experiences for pretty petty reasons.
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