The Xbox One and the PS4 have very similar launch title lists… but a lot of those titles are multiplatform, and in fact you can probably play them on your current console. So what about the games that you can’t get for any system? Let’s take a look…
We’ll handle by system: Xbox One first, PS4 second, and then on the last slide, we’ll wrap it all up. So, Xbone… whatcha got?
A Panzer Dragoon sequel is saliva worthy… but $500 worth of saliva? We’re not sure. It does help that the goofy Kinect controls have been stripped away so you can play the game on a controller, like God intended.
Capcom isn’t making enough money for this not to hit the PS4 sooner rather than later. So essentially if you can wait, it’s not a dealmaker for either system.
A Kinect-based fighting game? Unless it teaches you actual martial arts, no thanks.
This title looks unbelievably pretty, which it should considering racing games exist to showcase the hardware. This might be worth the $500 if you’re a racing fan.
We’ve already expressed our profound disappointment with this being a free-to-play game. No thanks, Microsoft.
$60 is a lot to ask for a game that plays with itself. Moving on to the PS4…
This first wave of games is surprisingly light on shooters, and the PS4 in general is surprisingly light on exclusives. But the Killzone series is popular, we suppose.
This game looks pretty cute. But it doesn’t seem terribly original, either.
Most of the PS4 “launch window” games are multiplatform; they may be Sony exclusives, like Super Motherload or Contrast, but they either are coming to the PS3 as well, or will also be available on PC, so, uh, yeah. That’s it.
In sheer numbers, the Xbox One is the obvious winner. Microsoft has been throwing piles of cash at first-party development, so it’d be a little surprising if they didn’t have a strong showing.
That said, quantity doesn’t equal quality. A few of the exclusives, like Killer Instinct, we can summarily dismiss because they’re experiments doomed to failure anyway; give it a year, and they’ll be in the digital shop for twenty bucks. And for actual, disc-based games, the Xbone only has three next to the PS4’s two.
Any launch lineup is going to be somewhat light, but that’s still a bit surprising. In the end, it’s probably going to come down to this: Do you want to race cars and kill zombies and Romans, or beat the crap out of Helghast and collect junk adorably?