After 7 long years, the wait is finally over for gamers around the world. Sony and Microsoft have both unveiled their attempts at the next generation of console with the long awaited PS5 and Xbox series X.  The consoles were leaked to the public on December 12, 2019 (Xbox series X) and June 11, 2020 (PS5) respectively.     

     The release date has just been publicized and Microsoft’s flagship for the next generation of gaming will be released to the public on November 10.  Sony will be releasing their console just two days after on November 12.       Sony announced the price of $499.99 for the Playstation 5 and $399.99 for the Digital Edition. Microsoft released their pricing at $499.99 for the Xbox series X and a much cheaper $299.99 for the Series S model.       

     When asked about the price tag of the new models, Junior Aaron Huth said, “I think it’s worth the price. At base value PS4 was around $400 so it makes sense for something more advanced [to be] worth more money.” Aaron claimed “Hopefully the rest of my friends also purchase it [The PS5] in the future.”     

     The price tag is only one of many factors in choosing a console, another being the internal technology. The Xbox Series X just edges out the PS5 with its 1TB internal storage card while the Playstation sits with a custom 825GB SSD.  The Xbox also shows strength in its 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.8Ghz as opposed to the Playstations 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.5GHz.  The Input/Output Throughput on the Playstation gives it the edge in download speeds with 5.5GB/s raw and 8-9GB/s compressed. The Xbox sits at a 2.4GB/s raw I/O and 4.8 GB/s compressed.      

      These technical terms and fancy numbers may seem off putting however they can be a large factor in a gamer’s choice of console. With more storage and a lower framerate, the Xbox shows to be a better choice for that on an entertainment system, For the extensive gamers however the Playstation’s strong I/O throughput and 2.23GHz GPU push it past it’s competition. While games like State of Decay 3 and Forza Motorsports are exclusive to the Xbox Series X, The Playstation 5 has its fair share of exclusives with games like the newest title of God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales headlining the list Junior Garrett Reinecke claimed, “I’d say Xbox might have a few better exclusive games.”      

      “The exclusive games are a good deal with the console but since I’ve switched to Playstation I definitely think I’m going to stick with it,” the junior responded.