PS4 And Xbox One Are Really Very Similar At This Point, Development Much Easier Than It Used To Be

Aidan Price, Game Designer at Eastasiasoft details how Lost Sea is shaping on consoles.

[ARESWARLORD]

PS4 And Xbox One Are Really Very Similar since the day they launched. The PS4 is more powerful, but it is like $30 dollar difference in GPU back in the day when they actually made them for PC, they are old outdated GPUs now. Enjoy the games. look at it this way, out of the 2 weak assed systems the PS4 is more powerful.

[ARESWARLORD]

It is like the SNES vs GENESIS days of BS

[Neonridr]

Blast Processing!

[darthv72]

No... just no.

[GameNameFame]

Architecture is similar, but power is not.

Xbox One has 12 compute units. PS4 has 18 compute unit. Each compute unit is identical, but PS4 has more.I dont get how anyone deny the difference. It literally is having half of Xbox more.

This is benchmark unbisoft ran.
http://www.cinemablend.com/...

@ARESWARLORD

$30 dollar difference? That is completely false...
http://www.extremetech.com/...
Xbox One is equivalent to HD7790
PS4 is equivalent to HD7870

Xbox One HD7790 was $150 when it came out.
http://www.anandtech.com/sh...
PS4 HD7870 was $350
http://www.anandtech.com/sh...

Freaking $200 difference. What a desperate damage control

@Eonjay

Yes. But in architecture alone. People seem to get confused. Power is different matter.

[Eonjay]

@GameNameFame

Exactly. They are actually very similar especially when compared to how different the PS360 were from each other.

[freshslicepizza]

thankfully sony finally played with others and decided to make a system that wasn't some proprietary hardware that made it more difficult than it ought to be. it's also refreshing to hear they are moving headquarters to the usa since that is the largest region for sales. makes no sense to make decisions from japan about the american audience. maybe one day nintendo will open their eyes too.

[3-4-5]

no SNES vs Genesis was different.

They each had a ton of unique games you couldn't find on the other system from day 1. Sound was also different with some games sounding much better on the Sega Genesis, and some music/games sounding better on the SNES.

SNES had the advantage for the controller until the Sega 6 button was released, then that become at least as good of a controller.

You can get 85-90% of the same experience on the PS4 as you can on the XB1.

With SNES vs Genesis, you got maybe 40% the same experience with 60% being unique, which makes both worth owning.

[Unspoken]

Yeah, except the PS4 is closer to the 7850 in architecture which was $249 at release.

http://www.anandtech.com/sh...

$100 difference.

Fast forward to 2015 and both equivalent cards, AMD R7 360 and R7 370 have a $40 difference. Not far off at all now from the original statement.

http://www.anandtech.com/sh...

Both are considered low-mid range graphics cards and are comparable in performance.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

If I gave you $5 for lunch but you typically consume 40% more and need an extra $2, some may say that $2 is a drastic difference. Some may not.

[Hoffmann]

Everyone who played Mortal Kombat 2 on the SNES and after that on the Genesis, knows that the differences in many multiplatform games were quite big.

[Kribwalker]

Lol @gamenamefame

First
You do realize that in the video card price comparison you gave, the review for the PS4 video card states it was released in March 2012 for $350 while the xbox video card was released in March 2013 at which point there was an $80 difference in price.

https://pcbuildoff.wordpres...

2nd look at the head to head comparison between the 2 cards

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Rad...

They are very close in performance, way closer then you would like to believe.

You need to chill out with your thoughts on the all powerful machine. I have both, they are both great, but they are both underpowered.

[GameNameFame]

@Unspoken.

What a load of bs.

7850 had 1024 stream processor and 64 texture units.
PS4 has 1154 stream processor and 72 texture units.

7850 would be a clear downgrade.

"Fast forward to 2015 and both equivalent cards, AMD R7 360 and R7 370 have a $40 difference. Not far off at all now from the original statement. "

Except they are not the equivalent graphics card and statement said "back in the days"

So no. No where near $30. Even if you downgrade the card at least $100.

@Kribwalker

LOL. Except you just showed review score not actual performance test.

http://www.pcper.com/image/...

PS4 is stronger than HD7850 even that doubles FPS of X1 GPU on the actual benchmark Crysis 3

[Kribwalker]

@gamenamefamr

There's a little tab stating benchmarks, click on that, you will see there's some test that are quite a bit better for the 7870 and some things (like directx performance) that are close or better on the 7790. I'm in no way saying that it's a better graphics card or that one demolishes the other as both machines are underpowered, but it's a lot closer then you try to make it out to be.

[ShadowKnight]

Every generation consoles GPU gets old and they still last for 6 to 8 years.

[tee_bag242]

Except every other generation they've been uber powerful out the gate. Unlike this Gen.
Problem is so many people wanna pretend it's got loads of power to spare. 2 years in they're already struggling for 30fps

[ShadowKnight]

The Key is optimization. As long as they keep doing that the console's will be fine. You can still enjoy any game at 1080P 30 FPS.

[sk8ofmnd]

My thoughts is that the xb1 should have never cost more than the cost of the ps4 even with kinnect. They should have launched the xb1 without kinnect for around 300-350.

[donthate]

That is because you know nothing about the cost of semiconductors. The CPU-GPU on the XB1 is about the same size as on PS4 hence they cost almost the same.

For comparison, an Apple iPhone cost more than a better performing Android phone.

[OpenGL]

The Xbox One has a larger APU die because the 32MB of embedded memory. It's system memory is much cheaper.

What better performing Android phone are you talking about? The iPhone 6s has the fastest SoC currently on the market for a smart phone.

[Ezz2013]

@donthate

But the Size of GPUs doesn't make them equal in price
Gpu in both are different ..same thing for RAM
Both are stronger/faster in Ps4
Ps4 GPU 35-40% stronger
RAM is DDR5 in ps4 while DDR3 on xbox
so that should make difference in price

CPU is about the same though ...that was until Microsoft decided to overclock it 10% higher on Xbox.

I think that's sk8ofmnd point...is it ?!
Both consoles are not equel in specs and that's why Xbox shouldn't be priced the same.

[dcbronco]

The problem with his point is that while there are differences in the parts that make the PS4 price higher in some areas there are differences in design that increased the price of Xbox One. If you look at any teardown of the two no one has ever listed the PS4 as having a more expensive APU. Despite the components that make them up the Xbox APU was more expensive to make. Plus there are other parts inside the consoles where Microsoft spent more money than Sony like Wi-Fi and cooling. The systems were very close in launch cost overall. Plus Microsoft considered lifetime cost as well. DDR3 will drop in price faster than DDR5 as well as the cost of the embedded esram.

[donthate]

dcbronco:

You hit the nail on the head that a lot of people missed. You can't determine the price by looking at one factor. The actual cost of the product is determined by not only what is in the console (which is similar and yet very different from each other, between XB1 and PS4), but also in what other costs are rolled into the console.

For instance, since MS has monthly feature updates to the console which requires more engineers, or it has BC that justifies extra cost?

My point being, there are a lot of costs involved and you can't just pick one aspect and base the price on that especially one that favors one system over the other. Not only that, but semiconductor pricing although straightforward is difficult to see for a general consumer. Both consoles have components that each other do not have so there really isn't an apples to apples comparison.

On top of this, the architectural design of the XB1 to require 8GB of RAM was done long before GDDR5 was known to have 8GBs of memory module available at a given price. If the bet Sony made turned out that the pricing wasn't possible, would consumers been happy about 4GB of GDDR5 on the PS4?

So in the end you make a choice as a consumer to pick what works for you, but console business is highly efficient in terms of finding cheap production and design.

[dcbronco]

Unfortunately this is a time in the world where facts aren't as important as which side someone chose ahead of time. But stupid people are just opportunity for intelligent and greedy people.

[Bobafret]

I have to agree on the hardware for both systems, disappointing all around. If people can buy 7-$800 phones every year they can damn sure buy a 7-$800 console every 6 or 7 years. Totally underwhelmed with the current gen graphics wise.

[NatFanBoyRestricted]

Thank you. Been saying that from the start.

[tee_bag242]

Well said. People love pissing money against the wall for phones every 2 years but don't wanna spend that money on quality hardware that's part of your living from for close to 10 years.

[donthate]

Although I don't mind your suggestion, I think consumers are very finicky about the console. They view a phone as a much more essential piece of their life than a gaming console.

You can clearly see this with the industry pushing console adoption by dropping prices $50. If a market is sensitive to $50 price drop at that level, it tells you a whole lot about selling the same product at more than double the price i.e. it would be business suicide.

Frankly, I don't think it matters. Heck the Xbox 360/PS3 was still going gangbuster without a new console cycle refresh anyhow.

[nitus10]

Consoles are actually designed for HDTV's which at the low end can only support up to 1080p @ 60 fps. Sure 4k TV's are available but HDTV's dominate.

Even if you have the latest Skylake chip-set and a high performance graphics card you still need a display device that will work well with it. Having a 5ms 24" 1080p monitor while acceptable is not exactly cutting edge for gaming so you still have to add a quality monitor to the equation of building a PC.

Coupled with the above you also have to add the cost of the OS (assuming you pay for a Microsoft OS) as well as a decent (not cheap) Keyboard, mouse and possibly a controller.

Comparing a phone to a console is not exactly fair since most people sign into a contract for a phone and when that contract expires they renew with a different phone. Yes I do know there are people with more money than sense who will buy a phone outright.

Actually even if you have designed and built the latest gaming rig there will always be someone who has built a better one and usually within the hour.

[rainslacker]

Except most people aren't eager to buy $700-800 phones, and history has shown they're less eager to pay that much, or even less than that for an expensive console.

Phones and consoles are different markets, and they shouldn't be compared like that, and most people do not buy expensive phones, or at least buy them on plans where they can spread that out...although that's kind of changing now, so we'll probably see a drop in sales on expensive phones going forward.

[Bdub2000]

The difference? 90% of the population is buying those phones... And they are pretty much a "need" in today's society, they can charge what they want. Consoles can't compete with that.

[endi123]

I totally agree with you, I would like to pay 7-800$ for an powerful console but not all have the privilege to pay that amount, and here starts the problem that people want a powerful console but don't want to pay that much, and we all know you can't have both, but infact those same people are paying 7-800$ every 2 yrs for a frkn phone, a reasonable price for a powerful console Imo would be around 550-600$

[Unspoken]

Wow, you are going to try and convince people that a console is as integral or important to someone's life as a cell phone? Good luck.

Consoles have a pretty specific price point consumers are willing to paying.

[Nightmar3Demom]

Totally agree. IF someone can pay $400-$500 per month on their car payment then there's no reason that they can't spend $200 every couple of months on new shoes.

[skratchy]

Thanks. Only been hearing this my whole life. Now shut up with the PC master race garbage already.

[kraenk12]

Yet games like The Order or Driveclub look better than anything on PC and games like Rise Of The Tomb Raider or The Division look very close and sometimes perform even better than any middle class PC would...due to better optimisation! It has always been like that. It's simply immature to behave like an elitist.

I am mostly gaming on PC btw!

[ARESWARLORD]

They perform like a 5 year old high end pc
Google GTX 580 vs HD 7870 vs HD 7850. That would give you a good idea of where the ps4 and Xbox one sit against Nvidia's flagship GTX 580 from the 2010 timeframe. Next you can google HD 7870 vs HD 7850 vs NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti and see where they sit against the current high end card

[kraenk12]

@Areswarlord

Theoretically...yet true game performance is nothing like that. Just look at Rise Of The Tomb Raider. The game is optimised badly on PC .. struggles to reach 60 FPS even on high-end machines.

Like I said before...people who compare pure PC to console performance behave immature and simply don't have a clue how it really works. The much better optimised APIs on consoles make them perform far better than a comparable PC would. Maybe DX12 and Vulkan will be able to change that in the future.

[ARESWARLORD]

@GameNameFame

XBox One: somewhere between a 7770 and 7790

PS4: somewhere between a 7850 and 7870

Neither one is particularly impressive

[showtimefolks]

if the development is easier now than how come development is now more expensive?

[solar]

It like fighting over which squirrel turd is nuttier. They are turds when it comes to hardware.

[Genuine-User]

The title is slightly confusing. Aidan is specifically referring to the development similarities between the two consoles.

[DragonDDark]

It's Gamingbolt... What did you expect? I mean they have interesting articles but them clickbaits though.

[Genuine-User]

I expect them to evolve :p

[Mr Lahey]

Gamingbolt working really hard to convince people that XOne is also worth buying.. (I'm not saying it's not though)

[rainslacker]

The content of a gamingbolt article can have some awesome quotes from developers in them, particularly the full interviews. Don't expect to see them in full, or expect people to actually discuss it though, because all they care about is if the headline matches whatever fan boy argument they want to make. Best time to read them if you care is when they have the full interview, instead of these bite size parts they throw out for their hit generation.

[Genuine-User]

I have noticed a pattern as well.

[nolies233]

redundant article, redundant comments smh

[MetroidFREAK21]

What happened to simply playing games?

[BISHOP-BRASIL]

Are you new here, or what?

[Unspoken]

Playing games? How do you do that? I need my console to be better in my mind to sleep good at night. I don't even need any games installed on it.

[FortyArcade]

"Aidan Price, Game Designer at Eastasiasoft details how Lost Sea is shaping on consoles."

Holy shit, Aidan Price! The guy from Watch_Dogs!

[Ezz2013]

Quick remove all your dirty pics and bribe messages before he hack your phone.

[MegaRay]

Like, all of them? :(

[esmittystud101]

The gap is not as big as it once was but.......there is still a gap. I have all three consoles and the differences yet small, there is still a gap.

PS4 is still outputting better resolutions to this day.

- Cod: Black Ops 3 - PS4: 1080p 60fps, Xbox One: 900p 60fps
- Just Cause 3 - PS4: 1080p 30 fps, Xbox One: 900p 30fps
- MGSV: PP - PS4 1080p 60 fps, 900p 60 fps
- Need For Speed - PS4: 1080p 30 fps, Xbox One: 900p 30fps
- SW Battlefront-PS4:900p 60 fps,Xbox One: 720p 60fps
- The Witcher 3 - PS4: 108p 30 fps, Xbox One 900p 30 fps

I didn't even mention older games because the gaps are even wider and didn't feel the need to list them. But yes, Xbox One is getting better, but so isn't PS4 as well. The gap will always be there, DX12 addition or not.

I like all my consoles but multiplatform games I'm probably going with the highier resolution everytime since I'm playing on a 55" LED. There is a difference between 1080p vs 900p and 900p vs 720p, but until you blow that image up past a desktop minitor or your smartphone size screen, you'll never see a difference.

Now if Xbox One throws in some amazing deals to get me to buy there multiplatform games instead of PS4, I would consider getting a lower resolution game or if you bring out a game a year before the other (Rise of The Tomb Raider, which I bought for Xbox One) I would buy theres of course.

On top of everything else, in holiday 2013, all you guys preached was the "GaP between the two". Now its like none of that matters and you all just wanted to argue for the console war. The biggest winners in console wars is the consoles. You beat your chest, I beat mine. But at the end of the day, we still went out and bought a console. Console wars was good for bussiness and will be for a long time to come. Next will be the VR wars......"oh god, now there arguing over gimmics." LOL

[lastking95]

I play on a 65" and don't notice a difference between 900p and 1080p but in all fairness I don't have 20/20 vision. I think you're right at this point people just like to argue the war. I dont remember it being this bad last gen, but then again I jump on late, I had pc for the first 3-4 years of last gen. I just don't remember this much debating. Especially about hardware, it was more about price. Paying for online and $600 launch price.

[FGHFGHFGH]

Of course no one cared about sub hd games when gta sa came out, now people have hdtvs and not 480p crt tv.

[BossBattle]

It's funny how resolution matters in the console wars. PS4 fans say that their console has better resolution than X1. But now the Oculus will have better resolution than the PSVR. So will resolution still matter when people are playing Playstation VR games in lower resolution?

[Magnes]

Oculus is for the pc not console so its not a valid comparison console hardware is static most pc users will have to upgrade to take full advantage of oculus.

[kraenk12]

While Oculus does indeed have a slightly better resolution PSVR has the much better OLED screen with up to 120 Hz and three RGB sub pixels per pixel which totally eliminates the screen door effect. Resolution is not everything...just saying.

[rainslacker]

At this point, given how 99% of the people here haven't experienced either, it's really hard to say if it will make a difference on a small screen a couple inches from your face....which honestly it probably won't given the graphical detail I've seen for either VR system so far.

[BossBattle]

The Oculus could one day work with the X1. It's been talked about already. X1 games will be able to stream to the Oculus anyway.

[kenwonobi]

PC has always had this. Lmao! This guy

[BossBattle]

The X1 and PS4 are much more closer in performance now than in the beginning because of better optimization and API from Microsoft. That's why 3rd party games are now very close in comparisons.

[MachuchalBrotha316]

I like how the article is about them being very similar for development. But on the comments section is about which is more powerful and prices. Lol...

Im liking the site more and more. Never a boring time and I like that.

[Silly gameAr]

Gamingbolt. I knew it. Do you guys at Gamingbolt talk about the actual games on the systems, or do you just make articles about resolution, and comparing specs of the consoles?

[DivineAssault]

They can easily develop the same game but performance & visuals will be better on PS4 90% of the time.. If devs really did their best to optimize each, PS4 would be better 100% of the time..

PS4 is just a stronger machine for games plain n simple.. XB1 was designed differently & they changed a lot but theres only so much that can be done for game performance..

[Night99]

The Xbox had a lot of power reserved for the useless Kinect at release, and a lot of developers complained that the tools and driver and what ever Microsoft provided at the beginning weren't good, especially for thes use of the fast esram, developers weren't able to utilize the esram properly but now with directx 12 and the unleash of the Kinect reserves plus the XboxOne stronger CPU than the PS4, the Xbox caught up a lot.

[yomfweeee]

Until there is a game to show it.... no it hasn't.

[LamerTamer]

Except that the weaker GPU is still weaker. All of the software in the world won't change that.

[Night99]

You get that caught up and the XboxOne is similar to PS4 doesn't meant that it is the same. 1,222222 and 1,222221 are very similar yet they are not the same number.

And even if Xbox and PS4 really would be completely the same in power it still would not necessary mean that the games look always identical one of the two would always be the lead plattform and the other one gets a port.

It is more important who is the lead plattform for developers not who has 1 Bit more or less power than the other.

Last gen. the PS3 was a lot more powerfull than the Xbox360(the difference in power was way bigger than it is this generation because Cell Prozessor of PS3 was a beast) but still Xbox always got the better looking games cause it was lead plattform for developers.

[perutano]

Xbone will just keep getting better. Improving software with dx12. Will it ever be on pair with ps4? Time will tell

[Night99]

The biggest improvements XboxOne got since release is the new Dashboard which is really fast and cool now and Backwards Compatibility in my opinion.

[yomfweeee]

Because Sony doesn't improve its software right? Wrong.

[nitus10]

You can improve the performance of software in how it actually integrates with the hardware and other software. What you can't do is improve the performance of the hardware without changing it.

The only physical entity on both the PS4 and XB1 that can be improved on is the internal storage device and even then it will only improve the load times of games.

DirectX12 is Microsoft proprietary software that may be more efficient in the way it talks to the hardware and other software on the XB1, however what can be done with DX12 on the XB1 can also be done with the API's on the PlayStation or did you think that Microsoft has cart blanch on all software development.

[Clarence]

No their different.

[FoxyGotGame]

I'm primarily a PlayStation Gamer, but recently acquired an Xbox One with Forza Horizon 2 & Fifa 16, and run my Cable through it )))

Though I'm still slightly confused by the plethora of menu options in the new U.I., in comparison, the PS4 U.I. is very streamlined...I gotta say Xbox One is a pretty awesome system that has undeniably improved since launch. Developers will only get better at refining tools and improving performance on both leading consoles.

People bashing Xbone really don't know because they haven't experienced it first hand, or don't own One. Proud owner here )))

[LamerTamer]

You traitor, you should be banished forever!

[kenwonobi]

I'll just play it safe always get the PS4 version of 3rd party games.

[FoxyGotGame]

I'm going to wait for DF & NXG analysis before I decide which system gets what. There are and will be some games more suited to Xbox One, and similarly PS4.

It all depends on how the developers build these games. More CPU bound titles may perform better on X1, and GPU heavy games may favour the PS4. Either way, owners of both get to enjoy some incredible exclusives or timed exclusives 1st.

[sk8ofmnd]

Ditto bro. I go where my games will look and play the best. Last gen from the start till about 3/4 of the way through i only played 3rd parties on my 360. Its nice to see ps4 take it old school like ps1, ps2 days and totally dominate the competition

[sk8ofmnd]

Dcbronco,
You state things that are false that the *general masses* (majority) deem to be true about gen 8 consoles. Ok lets pretend here for a second the xb1 costs more to develope than the ps4... Where are the results? The public notices cold hard facts. The ps4 was $100 cheaper the the xb1, displayed higher graphics than its competition, and did not fumble the ball so hard it was cringe worthy. If the xb1 really did cost more to develope... theres your "stupid people" that the results (fps, resolution, ect) did not reciprocate said over expenditure. So what youre saying is that sony cut costs, was cheaper to manufactor, and yet still has the edge on power and sleeker design... Bravo... Standing ovation

[ARESWARLORD]

I don't know if the Xbox one cost more to develop than the ps4. But it seems to be built better as far as reliability goes. one thing I have noticed that the ps4 seem to die. The Xbox ones don't have that issue. look on ebay and see how many dead ps4's are for sale

[masterfox]

"Are Really Very Similar ", omg not again!, well I kinda agree a goose and panther are both very similar, I mean both are living entities. am I right ? :D

ok I exaggerated a bit :D

[jojo319]

And yet 95% of the people buying these consoles just don't give a sh*t.

[sk8ofmnd]

If 95% didnt gaf the console sales would be neck and neck.

[jojo319]

I don't think the gap is due to the "power" of the console. It's due to huge blunders by MS from the outset, and Sony jumping all over the opportunity. I own and play both about equally, and I personally don't see much noticible difference. Keep in mind, I'm not looking for any either. Also, once you have a huge lead, that in and of itself sells consoles. My nephew just bought a PS4. I asked him why he chose that console, and he said "because that's what most of my friends have". I'm not saying power and specs aren't important, but to say they are the reason Sony has sold more consoles I think is just wrong.

[sadsatan]

uncharted 4 says hi. ratchet and clank says hi. shall i continue...

[ARESWARLORD]

Dude those games are garbage. I'd rather drop Titans on PC play black ops 3 at 60 frames a second max settings and play some Starcraft while you run around in Ratchet and Clank and in my opinion Tomb Raider is way better than uncharted

[MRMagoo123]

Lucky the majority of gamers don't share your bad taste.

[thexmanone]

Well Said

[ARESWARLORD]

They are both laughably underpowered and I would rather pay more to have a better GPU in my consoles

[Eidolon]

My PC was more power than my PS3 and I still preferred PS3, I'll always be a console gamer.

[FN4GM]

A Ferrari and a Pento are both similar too, they're both cars, they both have wheels and engines and you put gas in both of them, but one is clearly better then the other.

[yeahright2]

consoles are similar and games are similar for Sony and MS. That's why I suggest that anyone that owns one of them and is looking to buy the other, grab a Wii U instead.

[Deeke]

The Xbox One has the worst UI I've ever seen in any device. The New Xbox One Experience update only shows that Microsoft is willing to just band-aid the real problems instead of fixing them.

The PS4's UI, on the other hand, is arranged logically. Yes, the PS4 has its problems, too, and definitely isn't perfect. But I can easily record and share footage and screenshots without using Microsoft's most awful invention ever: Snap Mode.

Kudos to all of you who can actually manage and use the UI and the console in general. I absolutely hate it, and the system has been nothing but a problem since day one.

[thexmanone]

sorry to hear about your problems, mine works great

[Artemidorus]

Trollingbolt clinging on to old news like it's the end of the world.

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

I haven't seen anything on the PS4 that makes me feel that the X1 is underpowered. I own both consoles and really it comes down to exclusives. Both consoles are great at what they do but if your only interested in counting pixels then your in the wrong hobby.My Old ass 7950hd smokes both consoles and that card is at least 2 or 3 years old if not older. These systems are not the powerhouses people (especially Sony fanboys) want you believe they are. Just play the games...

[kenwonobi]

Looking at Uncharted 4 there might be a slight difference in power. PS4 surely has the upper hand.

[Azzanation]

They are very similar. Thats why its funny and stupid when fanboys bag the the console when there favorite peice of plastic isnt much different.