The Xbox One - Mini Review & Comparison to Xbox 360/PS4
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 20, 2013 8:00 AM ESTImage Quality - Xbox 360 vs. Xbox One
Before I get to the PS4 comparison, I wanted to start with some videos showcasing the improvement you can expect from launch day titles that are available on both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. I turned to Call of Duty: Ghosts for this comparison as it’s broadly available on all platforms I’m comparing today.
Note that cross platform launch titles, particularly those available on previous generation consoles, end up being the worst examples of what’s possible on a next-generation platform. For the most part they’re optimized for the platform with the larger installed base (i.e. prior-gen hardware), and the visual uplift on new hardware isn’t as much as it could be. I’d say my subjective experience in playing a lot of the launch titles on Xbox One and PS4 mirrors this sentiment. Basic things like not having accurate/realistic cloth physics in games like CoD: Ghosts just screams port and not something that was designed specifically for these next gen systems. Just as we’ve seen in prior generations, it’s likely going to be a good 12 - 24 months before we see great examples of games on this new generation of hardware.
Now that I’ve adequately explained why this is a bad comparison, let’s get to the comparison. I’ve captured HDMI output on both consoles. They were both set to full range (0-255), however I had issues with the Xbox One respecting this setting for some reason. That combined with differences across Ghosts on both platforms left me with black levels that don’t seem equalized between the platforms. If you can ignore that, we can get to the comparison at hand.
All of these videos are encoded at 4K, with two 1080p captures placed side by side. Be sure to select the highest quality playback option YouTube offers.
The first scene is the intro to Ghosts. Here you can see clear differences in lighting, details in the characters, as well as some basic resolution/AA differences as well (Xbox 360 image sample, Xbox One image sample).
The second scene is best described as Call of Duty meets Gravity. Here the scene is going by pretty quickly so you’re going to have to pause the video to get a good feel for any differences in the platforms. What’s most apparent here though is the fact that many present day users can likely get by sticking with older hardware due to the lack of titles that are truly optimized for the Xbox One/PS4.
Now getting to scenes more representative of actual gameplay, we have Riley riding around wanting badly to drive the military vehicle. Here the differences are huge. The Xbox One features more realistic lighting, you can see texture in Riley’s fur, shadows are more detailed and there seems to be a resolution/AA advantage as well. What’s funny is that although the Xbox One appears to have a resolution advantage, the 360 appears to have less aliasing as everything is just so blurry.
Speaking of aliasing, we have our final IQ test which is really the perfect test case for high resolution/AA. Once again we see a completely different scene comparing the Xbox One to Xbox 360. Completely different lighting, much more detail in the environments as well as objects on the ground. The 360 version of Ghosts is just significantly more blurry than what you get on the One, which unfortunately makes aliasing stand out even more on the One.
Even though it’ll be a little while before we get truly optimzed next-gen titles, there’s an appreciable improvement on those games we have today for anyone upgrading from an older console. The difference may be more subtle than in previous generations, but it’s there.
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nikon133 - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
Yes, you usually win war with weaker hardware, bundled with generally unwanted accessories, which pre-orders significantly worst than competitor, even on local US turf. /sHere in NZ, all chains I have checked have PS4 pre-sold until late January to mid-February. Coincidently, every shop tried to sell me XO instead. "We have plenty of those", they said.
Great win for XO. They will own shop shelves in the next 2 - 3 months, at least ;)
douglord - Thursday, November 21, 2013 - link
The weaker console almost always wins the war. Sega always had a hardware edge on Nintendo. Same with everything vs Gameboy. PS1 vs Dreamcast? Wii vs PS3 and 360. DS vs Vita.xgerrit - Thursday, November 21, 2013 - link
"The weaker console almost always wins the war." You're the first person I've seen suggest the Wii U is going to win this generation... interesting.blitzninja - Saturday, November 23, 2013 - link
He's going in the right direction but lacks the real reason why.You guys here on AnandTech need to realize that you live in your own little bubble and while you may know a lot about the consoles, the casual consumer market (which makes up most people) have different priorities. So why did Nintendo products beat it's competitors with the Wii while having horrible specs? The experience.
Yes, there is a performance difference between the PS4 and the XO but what really matters is how the console feels and does what people want it to do. This is where the Wii comes in (the Wii U was a flop because they actually went backwards in this regard). Most of the console market is made up of casual gamers. Casual gamers like to invite their friends over and have a LAN party or party game, play with their family (this includes younger audiences), watch movies together and play music at times. The Wii dominated the market because of it's new control interface(s) that added the missing point to this market, it was extremely versatile and made playing it all that more fun than the other consoles.
This is why Nintendo didn't really beef up the Wii U, they just added the extra power to allow for more advanced and precise gesture computation.
So why isn't the Wii U dominating again? Well for starters, most people who have a Wii are satisfied with it and are not out to buy a new one, the Wii U doesn't add anything spectacular that would make the majority of it's target market want to upgrade.
The reason the higher spec console ended up losing is because when the company developed the console, they focused their resources on the performance and as a result cut back on the usability and experience aspect. But that isn't necessarily the case, it all depends on what the focus experience of the console and how well polished that experience is.
If Microsoft want's to win the war it needs to pander to the needs of the casual market, not to say it should copy Nintendo but it has another market. The all-in-one, that is to say make the XO a future PVR, set-top-box, media/streaming centre. Replace the HTPC with a low cost alternative. Most descent HTPCs fall into the $500-$700 market for those who want some light gaming too. The XO would absolutely destroy this market with the proper hardware and software support. Being a console for mid-high end gaming while still being a multimedia powerhouse that does a multitude of things. This includes the voice recognition, a killer feature if done right. If I could say "latest episode of the walking dead" or some other show and it worked, then gg Sony, you just got rolled.
ydeer - Thursday, November 21, 2013 - link
"I'd say that, sad as it is, MS won that war. Their box will be perceived as "good enough"."This ranks very high on my list of "most hillarious console war comments 2014".
douglord - Thursday, November 21, 2013 - link
The jump in TFlops gen to gen is usually 10x+. 50% more is not a big deal.bill5 - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
btw, xone has a few spec advantages too, 9% more CPU speed, 7% more geometry setup, and 54% more peak gpu bandwidth.Revdarian - Sunday, November 24, 2013 - link
Actually, on digital foundry MS admitted that the useable GPU bandwidth in real world scenarios was of 140-150GB/s, while the developers of ps4 games have reported useable bandwidths of ~170GB/s.The 9% gpu is useful until you remember that you need to set aside power for Snap, and that you are running 3 OS's.
Da W - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
The best hardware has always lost the war. Genesis, N64, Xbox, PS3...Death666Angel - Wednesday, November 20, 2013 - link
Genesis wasn't superior to SNES neither was the N64 to the Playstaytion. Xbox and PS3 I agree.