While we are well aware of the stock shortage and the current discrepancy in exclusive titles compared to its main competition, the PlayStation 5, we feel that it’s our responsibility to educate interested buyers on how Microsoft has slowly but surely positioned the Xbox Series X to come out ahead in this console generation. If you’re currently shopping for your next-gen console and interested to learn why we think that it’s a good idea to buy an Xbox Series X right now, we recommend that you read on.
It’s The Most Powerful Console Available
This is inevitably going to be part of every conversation regarding the next-gen consoles going forward. In terms of hardware, Xbox Series X has a leg up against the PS5. Case in point, it has 12 teraflops of GPU performance (over 10.28 teraflops), higher levels of memory bandwidth (320-bit as opposed to 256-bit) and more compute units (52 vs 36), the Xbox Series X is slightly more powerful than the PlayStation 5. Although this hasn’t translated to better graphics and performance yet, Microsoft is actively looking for ways to make games perform noticeably better on their console.
An Expandable Storage Solution Already Exists
Sony claims that the proprietary SSD drive in the PS5 is much faster and more powerful than standard SSDs with similar specs and they are right. However, they failed to take into account just how large games can become these days. On paper, the PS5 only has an 820GB SSD. So sure, it’s faster, but not by much, and the key point is that it only has 667.2GB of space left when you take into account the space consumed by system files. On the other hand, the Xbox Series X has a 1TB SSD, which translates to around 802GB worth of actual storage space you can dedicate to games alone. Even more importantly, the Xbox Series X already has an expansion card available for you to purchase right now. Microsoft was quick to assure fans that they don’t have to worry too much about losing storage space even before the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S released. Working together with Seagate, Microsoft launched an expansion card for their consoles. While it’s a proprietary technology available only from Seagate, the point remains. The fact that you can get 1TB of extra space available in an SSD that’s just as fast as the default storage drive of the Xbox Series X is a big deal. In comparison, the PlayStation 5 only has what it refers to as an “extended storage drive” at the moment. What this means is that Sony will let you format an external storage drive so that you can use it to store and play PS4 games directly from. This effectively lets you use your PS5 exclusively for PS5 games (or PS4 games that you want to enjoy with faster loading times) if your external storage drive is not an SSD.
Xbox Game Pass Is Better Than Ever
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is starting to live up to its name and it’s all thanks to the most recent moves that Microsoft made to make Xbox Game Pass better. For starters, Microsoft had already integrated EA Play with the Xbox Game Pass even before the Xbox Series X released. Because of this, subscribers will have access to a vast library of Electronic Arts’ best titles going forward. Plus, the said subscription service also lets players try out newer titles for a couple of hours before buying them. This is in addition to the dozens of Xbox 360 and Xbox games with backward-compatibility that are also available to Xbox Game Pass subscribers. As a bonus, Microsoft is working hard to make cloud gaming available to most subscribers as well.
Two Words: Smart Delivery
Do you remember how Sony used to poke fun at Microsoft for the “digital rights management” fiasco back when the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One first launched? Yeah, well, it seems that the tables have turned. Just in case you haven’t been following the news lately, the next-gen version of Marvel’s Avengers was recently released. This gave owners a chance to upgrade their PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions to their next-gen counterparts. However, while Microsoft makes upgrading from the Xbox One to the Xbox Series S/X easy, Sony makes things a bit more complicated. For starters, the entire process was convoluted and required a significant amount of effort. This led to Square Enix actually having to explain how to do it. Sure enough, it didn’t take too long for people to notice, with Aaron Greenberg, the GM of Xbox Games Marketing at Microsoft, also joining in on the fun himself.
— Aaron Greenberg ??♂️?U (@aarongreenberg) March 19, 2021 This isn’t the first time this has happened since the launch of the next-gen consoles and it certainly won’t be the last.
Microsoft Owns Bethesda
Yes. The Bethesda. Microsoft is now officially the owner of the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, ZeniMax Media, which means that Microsoft now owns Bethesda. But, that’s not all. Because of its recent acquisition, Microsoft now also owns id Software, Arkane Studios, MachineGames, Tango GameWorks, and ZeniMax Online Studios. As a result, Microsoft could now, if they want, make future installments in franchises like Doom, Dishonored, Wolfenstein, The Evil Within, and The Elder Scrolls, all exclusive to the Xbox Series S/X. As a matter of fact, Microsoft has announced that this will indeed be the case for some games going forward, although they did not specify which games from Bethesda will be exclusive to the Xbox Series S/X.
