Microsoft responds
It’s going to be a busy couple of years for console launches. After months of speculation, Sony has finally unveiled the PS4 Pro, a souped up version of its existing PS4 console, which is also receiving a more traditional slim-down of its own.
Not to be outdone, Microsoft also has a pair of new consoles. The Xbox One S came out just last month, and next year the company plans to launch what it’s currently calling Project Scorpio, its own more powerful version of its current generation console.
Although on the surface the two companies appear to be following very similar hardware tactics, the truth is that the four consoles differ greatly in terms of their hardware and features.
For example, Sony has kept its 4K capabilities exclusive to the PS4 Pro, leaving the PS4 Slim as a dedicated 1080p machine, while Microsoft has brought 4K to both of its new consoles.
Meanwhile, the Xbox One S offers a 4K Blu-ray player and 4K upscaling for games, and the Scorpio will give developers the horsepower to run games in native 4K if they choose to do so.
The differences are striking, especially when you consider how Microsoft and Sony have traditionally approached their consoles.
Media machines
Sony has always prided itself on including the latest media hardware in its consoles. The PS2 was one of the first mass-market DVD players, and the PS3 was a trojan horse for the Blu-ray format.
Meanwhile Microsoft’s Xbox 360 never supported Blu-ray and only ever supported HD-DVD with an optional add-on.
So why has Microsoft chosen to include a 4K Blu-ray player in the Xbox One S? We asked one of Microsoft’s senior directors, Albert Pinello, for his thoughts.
“We wanted to be able to tell a complete 4K story with the Xbox One S,” he said, “I think Blu-ray was definitely an important part of that.”
But why would Microsoft embrace the physical format when the world is increasingly moving towards streaming as a solution?
“As far as physical media goes, I could not agree more, I think that the future is digital. But if you look at a global basis, not everybody has access to the same streaming content that we have, and I think physical media is and will continue to be important…around the world discs still play an important part of people’s lives.”
This is an interesting point. In order to stream 4K content, Netflix recommends an internet connection speed of 25 mbits, which is difficult to achieve in developed economies such as the UK and US, let alone emerging markets around the world.
Undoubtedly as internet speeds around the world continue to improve, the possibility of streaming 4K content will increase, but for now at least Microsoft believes that discs are necessary to get the most out of the new resolution.
Leaving Sony behind
Worldwide internet speeds aren’t ready for 4K video streaming, which begs the question of why Sony would leave an Ultra HD Blu-ray player out of its first 4K games console.
“It’s one of the more surprising decisions that they made.” Pinello observes, “Given their history with being on the forefront of media transitions like they have. So I don’t know, I think it’s a really great question, I’m not sure.”
It sounds counter-intuitive, but Sony’s desire to be at the forefront of these media transitions might be exactly what’s prevented it from including an Ultra HD Blu-ray drive in its PS4 Pro.
As a consumer electronics company, Sony has tended to manufacture its own media drives in its consoles. The PS3’s Blu-ray drives were almost entirely manufactured by Sony, with just a couple of later iterations featuring drives that were provided by Renesas.
Meanwhile Microsoft is happy to purchase its drive components from third-party suppliers. Pinello wouldn’t confirm who exactly has provided the drive in the Xbox One S, but thanks to an iFixit teardown of the console we know that the DG-6M5S drive has been provided by Philips and Lite-On Digital.
Sony’s preference for its own components appears to have backfired when it comes to Ultra HD Blu-ray. The simple truth is that the company’s own drive simply isn’t ready.
As John Archer pointed out in a recent column for Forbes, Sony’s first 4K Blu-ray player isn’t due out until March next year, and even then it’s a prosumer device aimed at the custom installation market.
The issue is further compounded by how early decisions about hardware specifications have to be made. With regards to the One S’s inclusion of a 4K drive, Pinello explains “We have to make these decisions well in advance of when we’re launching things, and so these are decisions that were locked quite some time in the past,” and the same is true of Sony.
The result was that by the time the Xbox One S was announced Sony had committed to its final design spec, and so couldn’t upgrade the PS4 Pro to have a drive of its own.
Advantage Xbox
Streaming might be the future, but the inclusion of a 4K disc drive in the Xbox One S is a huge advantage to those of us living in the present with our restricted internet bandwidth and download caps.
It seems that with this latest iteration of consoles, Microsoft might have developed a better understanding of the real world situations in which people use their hardware, after it so catastrophically got it wrong when it originally announced the Xbox One.
But with the PS4 Pro yet to hit store shelves, Sony could still pull something out of the bag in this console war that’s fast becoming hotter than ever.
Source: techradar.com
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The point you are missing is that Sony make 'game consoles' that focus all the hardware at gamers, while MS make 'multimedia consoles,' diluting the gaming performance. So gamers choose Playstation. It's in the name. 'Play' station. It's not 'Movie' station.
You also need to understand that the cutting edge supersampling checkerboard upscale technology is not the same as the lame bicubic upscale we see in the XB1 or inside TV's. This high quality upscale is achieved inside the PS4 Pro via custom hardware so that it outputs a very high quality 4K image. The custom hardware avoids lag.
That makes the PS4 Pro a serious threat to XB Scorpio which will achieve the same thing via expensive brute force native 4K and is over a year away.
No gamer is complaining about the lack of a 4K Blu-ray drive or the lack of native 4K when the high quality 4K graphics PS4 Pro is outputting is very close to native 4K and a lot cheaper. MS is trying to tell us what to think but we trust our eyes.
Most people still have a 1080p TV and will do so for the next 5 years, so this is not the time for full on native 4K. In any case it appears that the optical drive inside the PS4 Pro can read 4K discs so Sony could enable the ability via a patch later on to add the required software processing.
Sony actually designed the 4K Blu-ray format spec. Right now Sony are focussed on gaming and have a stand alone 4K Blu-ray player if you are an early adopter home theatre movie buff. I'm guessing Sony will enable 4k Blu-ray disc support when XB Scorpio releases.
I agree they shouldve put a 4k bluray player in there. Especially with their connections… PSN is known to have connection issues. Also only way someone might be able to stream is if noone else is using the connection. I usually have 2 people on PC.. a couple folks on their tablets all taking from the bandwidth. And even Amazon app says there may be quality drops when connection slows. So it fluctuates.
Only way their whole digital 4K will work out even a little is if they include all the 4k content that their 4k streaming device has. Just netflix and amazon 4k content won't do. Theres a lot of new movies being released everyday in retail UHD Bluray discs. Most isn't available to purchase digital.
There's also the fact that physical media currently provides higher quality 4K content compared to streaming sites like Netflix, even if you have the bandwidth. The streams you get off of Netflix are highly compressed and have reduced bitrates so that they are easily streamable. But with a 4K BluRay, you can get the full uncompressed video and audio.
Shilling huh? Coming from someone with the name Xbot. If i was the other way around, you'd be singing praises about how the PS4 Pro offered Blu-Ray 4k support. About how it offers higher quality 4k bitrates and lossless sound. How you can keep a disc forever (if taken well cared of), but films can disappear from steaming sites, or can be closed.
Sure TV's offer upscaling, which would work great for movies, but for gaming, not so much. As I noticed with trying to play PS3's 720p graphics, upscaled on my TV, it introduces lag that makes it almost unplayable (depending on the game). There's a noticeable difference in delay when I push a button or look around with the joystick and seeing it about a second or less later on screen. I don't have this issue when playing the same game on my Xbox 360 with the internal 1080p upscaling.
I agree that, at this point in time, the cost savings of not including a 4k player are probably more beneficial for Sony (and in a sense the consumers). Adding the 4k player would either decrease the profit from each ones sold, or increase the console price, without there even being large adoption of 4k (or UHD, not sure if there's a difference on the consumer end). There's almost no selection of 4k, disc especially since there's more 4k streaming out there, and despite 4k TV's being reasonably priced now, it'll take a few years to really take up a decent share of the market, by then the PS5 will be on the horizon.
It's a cost cutting move to keep the Pro the same price as the launched PS4
It really is quite amazing how much Xbox shilling has been coming out of you websites regarding the PS4 Pro and 4K BluRay.
It would appear that you journalists are the ones not living in reality. The reality is that there are barely any 4K BluRay movies out and there are barely any people even buying 4K BluRays. Excluding a 4K BluRay drive to reduce cost is a very logical move on Sony's part. And from what I've read the 4K BluRay drive in the Xbox One S can't even play all 4K BluRays properly. I don't know why but maybe it is because the Xbox One S BluRay drive is half-@ssed or cheap. Waiting to include a "proper" BluRay drive when it because more affordable could be a smarter move.
Journalists are a very small but loud vocal minority of people who care and are b*tching about 4K BluRay movies.
And why are you misleading people by mentioning the Xbox One S 4K upscaling as if it was a relevant bragging point? Xbox One S 4K upscaling is irrelevant. 4K TVs offer 4K upscaling and it doesn't improve the resolution detail of your games. A cheap scaler chip is not a substitute for a GPU. It doesn't make Xbox One S games look as good as PS4 games and improving image quality is not what it is meant for. It's meant for stretching an image so you don't have a small box in the middle of a 4K screen. 4K TVs do this and it means nothing for gaming.
All of this misleading info coming from websites and the boasting about 4K BluRays coming from Microsoft just looks petty and desperate.
Why does MS feel the need to 'respond.' Sony haven't done anything to them. Sony have omitted something which is their business call, and MS feel the need to 'respond.' MS did the same over the lack of native 4K with a desire to 'respond.'
Let's be clear, these are not responses, they are criticisms designed to pour cold water on Sony's plans and unfairly smack them in the knee caps with a plank of wood. It's lame and it shows a lack of moral character. MS are worried because the PS4 Pro is a real threat. Hence the constant need to 'respond' all the time.
MS thought they had cleverly outmaneuvered Sony by delaying a year to capitalise on next years more powerful AMD chips, so Sony would end up with the weaker console. This was supposed to be the US 'big is better' strategy as payback for the 900p vs 1080p saga.
But Sony have been really smart and decided to go early because they realised they could upscale 2K to 4K with cutting edge supersampling checkerboard technology and achieve a very high quality 4K output via cheap hardware that comes very close to native 4K.
That makes the XB Scorpio look like an expensive brute force native method of achieving the same result, plus it's over a year away and will be far more expensive. Sony have delivered a console here and now that hits the sweet spot where they can give gamers very high quality 4K graphics before the diminishing returns kick in.
So while Sony are offering extreme value for money, MS have naively sailed right into the diminishing returns territory and are now stuck in the mud resorting to dirty tactics. Everybody knows that most gamers can only afford one console so the first to market grabs all the sales.
The only way MS can combat that is to deflect consumers away from the PS4 Pro by deluding them and by selling the XB Scorpio at a huge loss.
It looks like history will repeat itself again due to Sony's clever vision. They don't need to play dirty. They just offer the better proposition and will outsell MS again with a 2:1 ratio.
Two things that are great about physical
1.) Can be used in rural areas with bad internet
2.) More importantly, you own physical. Films can disappear from streaming sites etc, sites can close down, but once you buy a disk, look after it and it's yours for life.
I agree with your two points, but I play games and can buy games on disc perfectly fine, so PS4 Pro looks good to me as a gamer. While you're watching movies. I'm playing games.
Naturally Microsoft will want to focus our attention on 4k as they don't have vr.