Xbox 2 vs PlayStation 5 – 2019 release date rumours, price and more
NEXT GENERATION consoles are almost upon us - and with Nintendo off doing their own thing, it's a two-horse race between Microsoft and Sony to be first out of the gate.
But will it be the Xbox 2 or the PlayStation 5 that we get to see first, which will be more powerful and which will we be playing games on first?
Both Microsoft and Sony have given the first glimpses of their next-generation hardware.
Sony tipped their hand first in March with a reveal of the ";next-generation" PlayStation, which they are refusing, so far, to call the PS5.
Microsoft, meanwhile, revealed what they are calling Xbox Project Scarlett at E3.
Which will be more powerful?
As had been rumoured, both consoles have the same base AMD chipset at their core.
The exact nature of those chips and what's around them will have a huge impact on their performance, of course, so even knowing that doesn't tell us very much.
It does indicate that we shouldn't expect them to be revealed or released too far apart from one another, though.
Both claim to have support for ray-tracing, a fancy new graphics tech that makes lighting and sound much more true-to-life.
We know the Xbox chips do this via dedicated hardware, while the exact nature of the PS5's support is unclear.
The PS4 Pro and Xbox One X both run on AMD Jaguar chips, running at different speeds, and the Xbox One X has a definite performance edge.
Will the Xbox 2 or PS5 come out first?
Last time around, it was essentially a dead heat.
The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were released in (much of) Europe and the United States in November 2013.
There's every reason to expect that they'll end up similarly close next time, because neither Sony or Microsoft will want to give up any ground to the other.
We know the new Xbox will arrive before Christmas 2020, and fully expect the next PS4 around the same time.
What games are there in development for them?
This is where things start to get sketchy.
From Microsoft's side, we know that Halo Infinite is coming with the next Xbox - but Microsoft have also confirmed it's coming to Xbox One too.
For Sony, we know they have a lot of irons in the fire, but nothing definite.
Ghost of Tsushima and even possibly The Last of Us Part Two, which have all been shown off on PS4 Pro hardware, could end up launching on the PlayStation 5 too as cross-generational titles, with neither game expected until next year.
We're expecting TLOU2 to hit in early 2020 now, so you can expect that to appear on PS4 first but a PS5 version for launch is certainly not out of the question.
Meanwhile, the likes of Bethesda have Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 in the works for next-generation hardware.
Bioware have also confirmed that players of Anthem, will be able to take their save games over onto the next generation of console hardware.
It's not all about new games, though -- a patent filed by Sony in 2019 suggests that the PS5 processor would be able to pretend to be the processors from older consoles, and thus play their games natively.
What other differences are there likely to be?
It seems very unlikely that the Xbox 2 will have any sort of Virtual Reality system attached to it, with Microsoft saying it was focused on delivering games you can experience on your TV.
Sony's PSVR system hasn't seen mass adoption, but seems likely to carry on plodding along.
It is possible, though not confirmed, that Sony could ensure that existing PSVR systems can work with the PS5 too -- or they may just start from scratch.
Sony's 2TB 500 Million special edition consoles with double the storage of any of their or Microsoft's previous offerings could indicate more internal storage could become the norm for PlayStation fans, but it seems more likely the two will match each other in this regard.
Rumours suggest that the PlayStation controller may be getting a little bit more Xbox,with images showing a bulkier version of the DualShock emerging online.
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But who will win?
This is the opposite of Alien vs Predator - whatever the result, we all win.
There will be plenty of amazing games for both systems, and hopefully with plenty of opportunities for fans of both to play with each other.
This feature is a work in progress, and will be updated with more information as it becomes available.
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