Arts & Life

Gamers debate

A new generation of gaming is coming with new ways to play and experience virtual worlds like never before.

By the month’s end, Sony and Microsoft will release their new consoles, marking the end of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 era.

According to retailer websites and the gaming companies, the Playstation 4 will release on Nov. 15, and the Xbox One will be available one week later, on Nov. 22.

The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a slightly more powerful system sporting more memory and graphical capabilities. The Xbox One, on the other hand, has an unmatched online gaming service. This past year, marketing strategies have been ramped up and it seems Sony will have an edge with consumers in this new gaming generation.

Jose Torres, a sophomore finance major and Xbox 360 fan, said “The PS4 is $100 less with better specs, and the online service with monthly free games and discounts only sweetens the deal.”

He also said that many of his peers are switching to the PS4 so he doesn’t see the point in buying a gaming system when he would have no one to play with.

Many consumers jumped ship from the Xbox bandwagon when it announced a used game policy that would have prevented people from sharing games.

The policy, which would have hurt rental businesses like GameFly, intended for each disc to be locked to one console and a new fee to be charged in order to use a game on another system.

In effort to appease consumers, Microsoft reversed its policies, however, some consumers still remain skeptical, according to Game Informer magazine.

Chris Mendoza, a freshman graphic design and art major, said that he refuses to go back to the Xbox brand because he feels that the policies Microsoft created for the new system could ruin gaming for him. He said that although the policies were removed to try to quell consumers’ uproar, he thinks there is a chance they may return.

“Sony is the place you want to go for games, and Microsoft’s new focus on a TV gaming hybrid isn’t for me either,” Mendoza said.

Sony has done a lot to revamp their online services and operating system to compete with the Xbox One. In collaboration with game designers, it built a system that would easily accommodate developments and allow companies to bring higher quality games to the system.

Microsoft’s Xbox One will still see some of those newer games, but its shift to a TV-gaming hybrid has caused a divide among gamers.

“I watch a lot of TV and I like to play games so these new services are great for me, “ said Lamar Strong, a sophomore audio engineering major. “I take breaks from gaming to watch Hulu, Netflix or whatever’s on TV while I’m studying and when I’m done, I can switch right back to gaming.”

Rachel Williamson, a junior English major, expressed her dislike for Xbox One’s hybrid features.

“They’re emphasizing putting stuff in the cloud too much and merging everything into one console,” Williamson said. “Rather than trying to make some crazy hybrid juke box, I’d rather they just improved my gaming experience.”

Although she is an Xbox fan, Williamson said that she admits the PS4 looks like it’s making better advancements and will have improved, more exclusive games, that will only appear on PS4 and no other console.

The two gaming consoles will be released by the month’s end, just in time for the holiday season. For more than 6 years, gamers everywhere have been impatiently waiting for what the new console generation has in store. Sony and Microsoft both claim that pre-orders have been sold out, which could make this the biggest console launch in gaming history, according to Microsoft and Sony.

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