With all the fanboy drivel back and forth, swearing allegiance to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, it's refreshing to see some formality and manners for once. While mindless trolls leaving flamebait comments on forum threads and messageboards is par for the course, thankfully the company suits are a lot more considerate than their respective fan base. At least on the surface.
Here's a nice bit of congratulatory banter between two of the company's most well known figures, Microsoft's own Director of Programming, Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, and Sony's President of Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida. The Major extended the olive branch to Yoshida via Twitter, congratulating him and the company on the release of the PlayStation 4:
"Congratulations to @Playstation on their North American launch cc @yosp @amboyes," Hryb wrote. Returning the favor, Yoshida replied, "Thanks Larry, your turn next week! :D"
A similar message was sent over Microsoft's Facebook page, and the company's Director of Product Manager, Albert Penello, and General Manager Phil Spencer sent their own felicitations from the Twitter soapbox.
Does this mark a new era of corporate prosperity? Will we all join hands and bask in rainbows and enjoy endless frivolity? Probably not, but I'm a cynic. Still, it is a nice gesture on Microsoft's part. Hopefully Sony will return the favor when it's time for Microsoft's own next-gen console, the Xbox One, to shine. We'll have to wait until later this month to see.
Microsoft's Xbox One launches on Nov. 22, and will be available in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, UK, and the United States for $499.
The new console claims an 8-core x86 processor and Microsoft hopes it will take the place of the family room cable box by letting you watch Blu-ray movies and TV through the console, in a "seamless transition" that lets players switch from playing games to watching shows and/or movies. It will come fully loaded with 8GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive.
A cross-country tour where Microsoft is demoing the system at various locations is already underway, and demo kiosks have begun arriving at certain retailers.
As for Sony, the PlayStation 4 boasts Supercharged PC architecture, X86 CPU, Enhanced PC GPU, and 8GB Unified Memory under the hood. It will support the same PlayStation Plus service as the Vita and PlayStation 3. However, a Plus subscription will be required for online multiplayer games, but not for additional media services like Netflix. Sony has also updated the Dual Shock controllers with a touch screen and improved shoulder triggers, and bundles the console with a headset.
The PlayStation 4 released yesterday in North America, and arrives in Europe and the U.K on November 29. It currently retails for $399. Be sure to keep checking back with Gamenguide for more of the latest updates.
