XBOX One vs PS4 – Features

This is a three part series on the XBOX One and PS4. Part 1 will be Specifications, Part 2 will be Features and Part 3 will be Games.

Ever since Microsoft’s XBOX 180 move, they’re back, and back with a vengeance.

We’ve covered that both consoles are very similar in specifications, other than the PS4 giving more processing power compared to the XBOX One. The next important factor for one of the two consoles to achieve victory are features.

Between the XBOX 360 and PS3, XBOX offered better online connectivity and service. The XBOX 360 offers their XBOX Live accounts. XBOX Live accounts are paid for. The PS3 offers no charge for their Playstation Network accounts, but this made them lag and fail with multiple maintenance problems and overall online service shutdowns. One thing that Sony did right with their PS3 online services is the Playstation Plus – which is similar to XBOX Live. Playstation Plus offers a wide array of full, free downloadable games for players that are willing to pay a yearly fee. These include AAA games like Infamous 2, Little Big Planet, Walking Dead and Borderlands.

After turning one year old, Playstation Plus holds 64 games for gamers to download for free!

So, what does that say about the new consoles?

None has changed for the XBOX One. This means that users must have an XBOX Live account to fully use their online services (this includes multiplayer capability). XBOX Live offers many free downloadable games, discounted games and their annual XBOX Marketplace sale. XBOX Live also offers XBOX Arcade, featuring arcade games that we all know and love. It’s a great value for the buck.

Sony, on the other hand, changed it up for the PS4. They now offer Playstation Plus as their base account for each player. Each player must purchase a Playstation Plus account to access their online services and multiplayer capabilities. Playstation Plus also offers free games, discounted games and early access to BETA versions of games. Although Playstation Plus does not offer arcade games, they do offer PSone Classics, which are games from the PSone like Crash Bandicoot, Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider.

Who wins this battle? It’s got to be Microsoft and XBOX Live. Their services are stable most likely because they use the money that gamers pay to manage and maintain their servers for maximum performance. This allowed them to have lesser crashes and online failures. But, considering that Sony now requires Playstation Plus for gamers to use their online services, all we can hope for is for them to use that money to improve their servers and give the Playstation Nation the online capabilities and performance that they deserve.

We’re back at level pegging, with PS4 taking Specifications, and XBOX One taking Features. Check out Tech Gum for Part 3 – GAMES!

Keep Chewing!