PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X. Which one trumps the other? All I know for sure is that they're both expensive. However, the PS5's latest update is closing the gap between the two consoles in terms of the visual experience.
According to analyst Tae Kim, who works for Barron's, PlayStation is outperforming Xbox in a number of key areas. Data from the most recent quarter shows that Xbox hardware sales decreased by 13%, content and service sales by 12% and total gaming revenue by 13%. On the other hand, PlayStation hardware sales rose by nearly 50%, network services by 19% and total gaming revenue by 53%. The proliferation of PS5 stock will have contributed to these impressive increases and you'll remember that Xbox had an admittedly weak 2022 in terms of releases, but it has seen Hi-Fi Rush sweep the board and Starfield is on its way this year.
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Yet, there is one element of the new-gen experience of gaming that the Xbox Series X has over the PS5. That's support for 1440p at higher refresh rates, or in layman's terms, super smooth and shiny visuals. Microsoft's doodad had this feature from launch, whereas Sony rolled out support for 1440p last September, and only today is there a beta for variable refresh rate at this resolution.
"You can now enjoy smoother visual performance when using a VRR-compatible HDMI 2.1 display at 1440p resolution, when playing a game that supports VRR," explained the blog post on the update - it also added Discord voice chat integration and a scattering of accessibility improvements.
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Moreover, auto low latency mode is here for 1440p, per Techradar Gaming's report. That prevents any lag imposed by in-built image processing procedures that might be present in your screen, letting you be as accurate as possible in games when it matters most.
So it's a small update, in the grand scheme of things, that will make a major difference to the way PS5 games look and feel while playing.
Topics: Xbox, PlayStation, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5