- The prices for the PS5 and Xbox Series X have not been revealed, as both Sony and Microsoft seem to be waiting for the other company to make a move.
- An insider who provided gaming rumors in the past says the Xbox Series X has a hardware advantage over the PS5, especially when it comes to multi-platform games.
- The same person said that Microsoft is willing to price the Series X lower than Sony because it can afford the losses so it can add more users to its platform.
Sony and Microsoft are playing the final moves in their cat-and-mouse marketing games ahead of the next-gen consoles’ launch this holiday season. We know almost everything there is to know about the PS5 and the Xbox Series X except for the things we want to know most. We have no availability details for either model save for that generic “holiday 2020” launch timeframe. Neither company revealed pricing or preorder details for their next-gen gaming rigs, and it’s unclear when the PlayStation 5 and Series X prices will be announced. Some rumors claim that Microsoft is looking to undercut Sony, and sell the Series X and Series S for less than Sony will charge for the regular model and the PS5 Digital Edition. A new report tells us practically the same thing. The Series X will be cheaper than the PS5 because Microsoft wills it so. Also, the new Xbox will offer better performance than the PS5, the same leaker said.
Insider Dusk Golem posted on ResetEra, (via WCCFTech) that the PS5 isn’t able to sustain the same performance when it comes to multi-platform games. The two consoles have essentially the same hardware, with the Xbox holding a slight advantage when it comes to overall power. The PS5’s SSD is more than twice as fast as the Series X.
Over the course of several posts, the leaker revealed that he heard from sources familiar with development for the two platforms that the Series X has an advantage over the PS5 (emphasis ours):
I’m not going to say too much, but from some murmurings I’ve been hearing, I’ll just say I suspect this topic is going to age ‘interestingly’ when a few more details on both platforms are revealed.
I mean this in a few more ways, but to give the broadest idea, I’ll just say the Xbox Series X is by far more powerful than the PS5 if we’re just talking raw power, multi-platform games will run better there, it is something people are going to have to prepare themselves for. Add to this Microsoft are ready to lowball Sony when it comes to price. They can more easily make a sacrifice and get back profits from Game Pass than console sales than Sony can from that comparatively.
He said that PS5 is easier to develop when it comes to games that should run on both consoles and PC, and that could be an advantage for Microsoft:
PS5 is easier to develop for overall and Sony has very talented studios behind it that will get the most out of the PS5, that I have no doubts about either, but this topic is about how Microsoft will compete so what I’m focused on. But when it comes to cross-platform games, they will end up performing a lot better on Xbox X. Xbox X will have the tech advantage over PS5, and it will be more than marginable.
The leaker said he’d been in contact with a small pool of developers with experience on both devices, and said the PS5 specs “kinda’ get weird for multi-platform games:”
I was away doing stuff until recently, but just a few friends I have in the industry working on games for both platforms and a few other insiders I know. More than one source. The basic gist of what I’ve heard is the PS5 is really good to work on for games exclusive to it, but in practice the specs kinda’ get weird for multi-platform games. If multi-plat the usage of PS5’s SSD systems does help a bit, but not to the fullest, and I’ve heard some dev friends talk a bit about the struggle PS5 has for 1080p games running 60fps still, while Xbox X doesn’t have the same problem and can push above that even in most cases. Of course, this is a small selection of people I’ve talked to, there’s more to it, but I hear something that’s going to make this generation a bit interesting is the PS5 & Xbox X’s focus in other areas are going to make multi-platform games ‘interesting’ this generation, to the point we may actually see less of them and far more games coming to one platform or the other (plus PC), as it’s actually kinda’ hard to make a game optimal for both platforms due to where they’re a bit differently focused.
He later clarified that he was referring mostly to Resident Evil Village, a game that has been struggling to hit 60fps in Full HD mode on PS5.
Okay, so I guess I’ll just come clean here… I’m talking about Resident Evil Village. The game’s terrible performance at the PS5 reveal event with the terrible frame rate present in the trailer was kinda’ the current status of the game on PS5 as of a few months ago. The thing is, apparently the game runs perfectly on Xbox X, they’ve been having some troubles getting the frame rate stable on PS5 (which as Sony had a rule to record the PS5 event gameplay on PS5, lead to the weird frame showing in that trailer). But it’s running in the RE Engine, and they’ll be making more optimizations to take advantage of the game there.
While there’s no guarantee the leaker has accurate information on hand, Dusk Golem is known for his previous CAPCOM and Silent Hill rumors. You can inspect the full ResetEra thread at this link.
