As soon as Microsoft officially unveils the Xbox 720 on May 21, you can bet that most people will start asking how the system compares to the PS4 from Sony.
The showdown between the PS4 vs. Xbox 720 (or whatever it ends up being called) is expected to be a dramatic battle between two consoles with different visions for gaming. The growth of the mobile industry has led some to believe that Sony and Microsoft need to really shake things up with the PS4 and Xbox 720 to stay relevant, and while that's true to an extent, it's likely the systems will be more similar than you think.
Right now, Sony is going all-in on games. The company emphasizes that the PS4 is all about gaming and gamers, that it'll be easy to develop for, and that it wants users to share their experiences together. The rhetoric is almost enough to make you forget the PS4 will probably be capable of even more non-gaming options than the PS3 is.
Microsoft, meanwhile, won't say a word about the Xbox 720, but numerous outlets claim the company will be positioning the console as more of an entertainment center that also plays games, not a gaming machine with extra features.
The truth is that despite the PS4's touchpad and motion controls, and despite the Xbox 720's Kinect 2.0 and TV streaming, the two systems are likely to be very similar.
As Forbes put it, "The PS4 is rumored to be the stronger of the two systems, but regardless of which is more powerful the difference will likely not be enough to matter much. At the end of the day, the weaker of the two systems will set the bar for the vast majority of games."
When it comes to multiplatform games, that is probably true. It's unlikely developers will optimize for PS4 when they're developing for both systems. If that's the case, it means the Xbox 720's supposedly less powerful hardware won't hurt the system's chances too much.
The only way it could is if Sony manages to scoop up a bunch of exclusives. And even then it might not matter against Microsoft's marketing power.
"The difference between the next Xbox and the PS4 really boils down to two things: content and marketing," Erik Kain wrote at Forbes. "Both systems will have similar functionality when it comes to non-gaming stuff, so it will really come down to a marketing war. That's a war Microsoft has been winning this generation.
"The Xbox 360 has far fewer exclusives, and yet it's sold about the same number of units as the PS3. Why is this? My mantra has always been 'content is king' but the current generation of consoles seems to contradict this philosophy. Microsoft has done a truly outstanding job in the marketing department which has in many ways made up for their shortcomings in terms of content.
Whether or not a similar situation plays out between the Xbox 720 and PS4 remains to be seen. Both systems are expected to launch in the fall of this year, and we're likely to learn more details about both at E3 in June.
