On Nov. 10 and 12, the world was given the future of gaming. The PS5, Series X, and Series S were promising a new era of gaming, giving record breaking speeds and power to the console market.

Both of Microsoft’s consoles finally released to the market after what seemed to be a long year of teasing. The Xbox Series X, set at $499, is meant to be the ultimate game-playing console. According to Xbox, the console boasts 12 teraflops of power,

multiplying the power by nearly 12 compared to the Xbox One which stands at 1.31. All this power allows for the games running on the console to have much more detail, be larger, and more realistic. It also allows for the games to use ray tracing. Furthermore, the power allows for loading screens to be cut in fractions. Not only that, but the Series X can run up to 120 frames per second, allowing for 4K gameplay. 

Even with all of this, the high price of $499 doesn’t allow for many to buy. Instead, there is a cheaper option to get into the new generation of gaming. The Xbox Series S costs $299, a whopping $200 less. The Series S is also the smallest Xbox console ever, being only 10.8 x 5.9 x 2.6 inches. While being less powerful to its counterpart, the Series S can still run up to 120 frames per second and use ray tracing. It has 4 teraflops of GPU performance still giving it the power of a new console. The Series S can run digital games exclusively, which means that the games can’t be owned by the disc.

Even with Microsoft’s two new consoles, Sony released their introduction to the newest generation of gaming on November 12. Competing with the Series X in power, Playstation states that the Playstation 5 also features ray tracing, 120 frames per second, and 4K gaming. While competing for the most part, the console seems to trade power for cost due to Sony not having a cheaper console like the Series S. The PS5 has 10.3 teraflop GPU compared to the Series X 12. Even with this, the console is priced as $499 for the standard console, and $399 for the digital edition. The cheaper pricing for the digital console than the Series X, and the higher power than the Series S give Microsoft an edge.

Away from the consoles themselves, the controllers for the new consoles can be one of the most important parts. The controller is the link between  the player and the game. The Series X and S feature the same controller, which is very similar to their predecessor the Xbox One, and obviously goes for the “don’t change it if it isn’t broken” mindset. The differences include a grip, share button, and sleeker design. The Playstation’s controller is drastically different from their past console while giving new features. The new controller features a brand new design, haptic feedback which allows you to feel what happens in the game and adaptive triggers, which can resist based on what the button is doing in the game. These connect you more to the game.

In the end, both consoles are great ways to get into the next generation of gaming, and which one to choose is entirely on preference. Depending on the power compared to price,which style of controllers they want, and in the end, the games themselves. It’s easy to lose track of all of this in the statistics and such, but in the end it all comes down to playing the games.