{"id":17236,"date":"2020-03-24T06:54:19","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T06:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/?p=17236"},"modified":"2020-03-24T04:43:38","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T04:43:38","slug":"playstation-5-and-xbox-series-x-release-full-specs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/playstation-5-and-xbox-series-x-release-full-specs\/","title":{"rendered":"PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X Release Full Specs"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the world is battling coronavirus, gamers received a little excitement last week when both Sony and Microsoft released more detailed specs for their video game console systems.\u00a0 In this battle of the engineers, the Xbox Series X specs arguably came out on top.\u00a0 However, long-term DFC still believes the PlayStation 5 will be the best-selling system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the hardware announcements, marketing and PR departments were notably absent.\u00a0 For both systems, the hardware was revealed in highly verbose tech speak that introduced new concepts like Xbox Velocity Architecture and Smart Delivery.<\/p>\n

Consumers without an engineering degree were forced to rely on tech websites and analysts to give an interpretation.\u00a0 On a numbers level, the Xbox Series X seemed to beat the PlayStation 5.\u00a0 Much of this focus was on the Xbox Series X GPU having 12.15 TFLOPS versus 10.29 TFLOPS for the PlayStation 5.<\/p>\n

Sony also stumbled with its discussion of backward compatibility.\u00a0 Lead PS5 architect Mark Cerny stated that they had tested compatibility on the top 100 PlayStation 4 titles and expected almost all of them to be playable on launch of the PlayStation 5.\u00a0 Many observers assumed this meant that only 100 PS4 titles would be backward compatible.\u00a0 This led to an official update from Sony\u2019s Senior VP of Platform Planning and Management Hideaki Nishino stating that \u201cthe overwhelming majority of 4,000+ PS4 titles will be playable on PS5.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reality is that backward compatibility is a fairly minor issue.\u00a0 In terms of hardware specifications, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X look almost identical.\u00a0 Both systems have a major focus on speed.\u00a0 The major issue for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One was that they were slow.\u00a0 In today\u2019s market speed is key and both systems appear4 to solve that issue.<\/p>\n

The bigger issue is when will these systems start appealing to a mass market.\u00a0 Both Sony and Microsoft have the luxury of knowing that initial demand for their systems will outstrip supply.\u00a0 DFC is currently forecasting that due to coronavirus both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will ship in very limited quantities in 2020.\u00a0 There is the possibility they could be delayed into 2021.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the initial launch is key to determining the long-term reputation for a hardware system.\u00a0 The Xbox One had a strong launch due to its core base, but even on launch date the PlayStation 4 was widely perceived as the better product.<\/p>\n

Right now, Sony and Microsoft are being abundantly cautious.\u00a0 Microsoft has had limited success marketing to a wider audience, so they are determined to focus on the core tech base and some key brands.<\/p>\n

Sony\u2019s mass market penetration and perception is far less than it was in the heyday of the PlayStation 2.\u00a0 However, they have a key advantage in software, consumer recognition and global distribution.\u00a0 For the next few years, this advantage will probably be insurmountable for Microsoft and Xbox Series X.<\/p>\n

Several months before the launch of the PlayStation 3, DFC Intelligence wrote an article entitled \u201cCould Sony Go from 1st<\/sup> to Worst?\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 This was a highly controversial position given the success of the PlayStation 2.\u00a0 However, the analysis proved accurate.<\/p>\n

Right now, DFC does not anticipate \u201cFirst to Worst Part 2.\u201d\u00a0 However, we do think Microsoft will start to chip into the PlayStation 4 market share. \u00a0However, much of this will depend on the strength of the offerings from Microsoft\u2019s newly acquired studios.<\/p>\n

The big winner from the console battle could be PC games.\u00a0 In today\u2019s society a PC is an essential device while a video game console is a luxury.\u00a0 On a global basis, people staying home because of coronavirus, are likely to realize how much a powerful PC can offer in comparison with a smartphone.<\/p>\n

Both Microsoft and Sony are making their services more open to PC users.\u00a0 Long-term a big question is likely to be whether either company can compete with Steam and other PC providers on a larger scale.\u00a0 However, this is an issue for future discussion, right now the focus is on winning the tech wonks.<\/p>\n

You can see the official release from Microsoft here<\/a> (there is also a glossary to explain all the tech terms).\u00a0 The Sony information and presentation can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The full DFC Intelligence forecasts are available now and include regular updates through August<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0DFC Executive Brief series\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0is designed for busy industry executives, leaders and investors that want focused analysis of the key issues in gaming today vs lengthy reports . The series includes access to top-level forecasts and regular briefs that come out every two weeks or more.<\/p>\n

Briefs are on major topics and upcoming trends such as eSports, cloud gaming, new product announcements, VR\/AR and much more. Subscribers gain regular analyst access including the capability to pull specific research data as needed. Subscribers are given the opportunity to provide feedback on topics they would like to see covered.<\/p>\n

The Executive Brief Series is only available to qualified executives and investors.<\/p>\n

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While the world is battling coronavirus, gamers received a little excitement last week when both Sony and Microsoft released more detailed specs for their video game console systems.\u00a0 In this battle of the engineers, the Xbox Series X specs arguably came out on top.\u00a0 However, long-term DFC still believes the PlayStation 5 will be the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[49,38,58,74],"tags":[52,31,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17238,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17236\/revisions\/17238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}