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The two variants of the Playstation 5 including accessories
Photo: Sony Interactive Entertainment / dpa-tmn
There are new smartphones and tablets more or less all the time, but new consoles only every few years.
Playstation 4 and Xbox One came onto the market in 2013, followed by the Playstation 4 Pro and Xbox One X updates in 2016 and 2017. Now both Sony and Microsoft have announced the real successors and have revealed prices and other details.
In Germany, the Xbox Series will be launched on November 10th, the Playstation 5 will follow on November 19th.
But what can the new devices do - and what are the differences between the individual models?
The most important information at a glance:
What new consoles are there?
A total of four models will start in November: Microsoft's new flagship console is the Xbox Series X for 499 euros.
There is also the Xbox Series S, which has less computing power and no Blu-ray drive, but comes in a more compact housing and - for console start conditions - a real competitive price: 299 euros.
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Doe Xbox Series S (left) and Xbox Series X with controllers
Photo: Microsoft / dpa-tmn
Sony also has two models that differ only in one point: the regular Playstation 5 costs 499 euros, the Playstation 5 Digital Edition without Blu-ray drive 399 euros.
Which console is better?
An answer to this question will probably not be available until November at the earliest.
One thing is clear: there are no sky-wide differences between the flagship models.
Both consoles work with Zen-2 processors from AMD, and the graphics hardware also comes from AMD - for Ultra HD graphics in previously unseen quality, as both manufacturers promise.
A premiere on the console market: Both consoles have SSD storage on board - long loading times should come to an end.
But that also has a downside: If you need more hard drive space than the integrated 825 gigabytes (Playstation 5) or 1 terabyte (Xbox Series X), you cannot simply connect an external hard drive, as was still possible with Playstation 4 and Xbox One.
Instead, the console manufacturers want to offer their own memory expansions - that could be expensive.
This is a foreseeable problem, especially for buyers of the Xbox Series S: It also has an SSD on board, but only with 512 gigabytes of storage space.
If you consider that modern games on the current consoles are often more than 50 or even 100 gigabytes in size, that's not much.
Otherwise, the Series S contains similar hardware as the Series X, including the same processor, only the graphics chip is significantly weaker.
What else is new?
Not much.
Both manufacturers are basically going on as before: Sony primarily relies on strong games from in-house development studios, combined with exclusive titles from other manufacturers such as the recently announced "Final Fantasy XVI", and there is also the game streaming service "Playstation Now".
Microsoft is also relying on game streaming with its X-Cloud technology, but the focus is clearly on Game Pass - a subscription service for download games that gives users unlimited access to more than 100 games, including all of them, for as little as ten euros a month new Xbox games from Microsoft and its development studios.
In addition, both consoles offer the usual apps for streaming services such as Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime - this is now standard.
The controllers of both consoles have only changed in terms of details or design.
What can i play on it?
That is the crux of the matter.
Neither of the two consoles offers a real hit that doesn't exist anywhere else.
Microsoft had to postpone its long-awaited shooter flagship "Halo Infinite" until the coming year.
Sony has a new "Spider-Man" game, which is also available for Playstation 4
In addition, there are plenty of games from other manufacturers to start with, from "Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War" to the new "Assassin's Creed Valhalla" to the inevitable "Fifa 21".
All of these titles are also available for the consoles that are currently available.
Will my old games work on the new consoles?
Yes.
In the past, this was not always a matter of course, but in the meantime Microsoft in particular has discovered backward compatibility for itself: All Xbox One games also run on the Xbox Series consoles, plus numerous titles for the previous Xbox and Xbox 360. So far Sony does not lean out of the window.
All games for the Playstation 4 should also run on the Playstation 5.
It becomes vague when it comes to which version of the game is running.
With its smart delivery program, Microsoft promises that users will always automatically have the best possible version - so nobody should have to pay for updates to the new generation of consoles.
However, it is still unclear whether and which game publishers will participate or whether the offer applies primarily to Microsoft's own titles.
Sony makes similar promises, but only for selected games like the new "Spider-Man".
Which console should I buy?
Of course, each player has to decide for himself.
For many, the best answer is probably: none.
Consoles have been on the market for a long time, with constantly falling prices - so if you don't necessarily have to have the latest hardware under your television set, you can wait a little longer before buying it.
At least until the first real game hit appears.
Tobias Hanraths, dpa
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