For the first time in six years, the newest generation of major consoles is about to release.  Revealed during this past summer, much controversy exists over who will win this latest clash of the titans.

    When Microsoft announced its plans for the Xbox One earlier this year, fans were outraged at all the decisions Microsoft had made. Most people even came to the consensus that Microsoft was just outright ignoring their consumers’ wants for money.

    Microsoft’s biggest controversial decision was in having the system check every 24 hours through an online connection.  People just viewed it as a way for Microsoft to limit people from playing the games they love.

    This statement could not be further from right.  The always-online system was planned because it would help kill used game sales.  By restricting games to the original owner, it would mean less used games are sold, which means that companies can sell their new games for less than $60.

    It’s wrong to say Microsoft doesn’t care about their customers. When Microsoft heard the outrage from the people they pulled a 180 and made everything the way the fans wanted it.  This shows how much better Microsoft is than Sony, which is why the Xbox One will be better than the PS4.

    On the other hand, when Sony revealed their console, there were no major disputes from the fans or anything they opposed. The majority liked what Sony had decided on and couldn’t wait for the new console to come out.

    Instead, what Sony did was genius by using Microsoft’s terrible decisions to market their console even more; including the fact that the PS4 is $100 cheaper than the Xbox One.

    “The PS4 is more bang for your buck,” junior Dylan Dalton said.

    This marketing campaign by Sony was successful enough to give them almost double the pre-order sales of the Xbox One by September.

    While this sounds fantastic for Sony, all it does is hide what is really happening.  Sony is using Microsoft’s bad decisions to sell the PS4 instead of using the features of the PS4 to sell it.

    Sony attempted zero new innovations to their console; instead they just updated hardware and developed their DualShock controller’s motion functions further. While Microsoft’s decisions weren’t met with open arms, they at least tried to push the generation into the future for consoles.

    “[The Xbox One] just has more functionality,” junior Jordan Tam said.

    While the sales lean towards the newest PlayStation, innovation favors the Xbox.

By attempting to take the steps foreword that it did, Microsoft showed what the future of consoles can be.