If you haven’t already turned in for the sixth generation of consoles yet, now is as good a time as any. The Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. All consoles with a deep lineages. With just three major contenders for a reasonable home console, it might seem like an easy task to pick one of them. Well apparently, this isn’t the case at all. There are a lot of things to consider when buying a home console. First are your needs.
For the Casual Gamer
If you’re the kind of gamer that plays in half an hour intervals, then the Nintendo Switch might be what you’re looking for. Or if you’re the type of person that prefers gameplay to story and graphics, the Nintendo Switch is for you. Nintendo has a set of principles that they have been following since their first games. That is, gameplay first.
Nintendo holds tightly to their belief that what makes a game truly enjoyable is not in the graphics. It’s in the gameplay. That’s why you won’t find fancy hardware in it’s consoles. What you will find is intuitive ways to play your games. They broke new ground in the last decade with the Nintendo Wii. All that ground was seemingly lost when they followed it with the Nintendo Wii U. But with the Nintendo Switch, the company seems to be on sure footing.
The Nintendo Switch also has one thing that the other consoles don’t. That is, Nintendo games. Super Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild are two of the best games produced in this decade. Both are games that have lineage, but continue to innovate in gameplay. Both are titles produced and published by Nintendo themselves. And most importantly, both are games that are absolute bliss to come home to in the evening for a short gaming session. They are representative of what Nintendo holds true in their hearts. Games are supposed to be fun.
A big part of having fun with games is playing with friends. It’s overwhelmingly easy to do with the Nintendo Switch. No other home console comes with two sets of controllers. Granted, the Joy Cons act as a single controller in most games, it’s still impressive on Nintendo’s part. So sit back, invite some friends, and go on an adventure the Nintendo way.
For the Serious Gamers
If you’re the kind of person who likes titles like Call of Duty and Battlefield, Nintendo’s consoles may not be the best option. In fact, most triple A titles aren’t on the Nintendo Switch yet. If you’re the kind of person that sits down and plays for entire nights, you’ll probably be better off with a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. There are two options and a lot of things to consider.
Well, there’s no easy way to say it, so we’ll just get to the point. There are very few reasons to get the Xbox One over the PlayStation 4. The Xbox One provides a good experience for people who want to use it as a media center, but with Sony’s recent updates to the PlayStation Network, even the PS4 acts like a reasonably good media center.
They PlayStation 4 has better hardware. The PlayStation 4 Pro has even better hardware. But the Xbox One and the Xbox One X aren’t really slouches either. The differences are marginal but depending on the developer, the hardware could provide an edge for Sony’s consoles.
There is the issue of exclusives to consider. And there isn’t much to say in this regard either; Sony has the upper hand. Sony treats indie developers with more care and attention than Microsoft, and that’s keeping Microsoft in the backseat. This may change in the future, but we don’t expect it to.
It eventually comes down to what you want from your console. The Xbox One [X] provides a good experience for gamers who like to watch Netflix once in a while and stream home videos. The PlayStation provides a good platform for gamers who want to support indie developers and offers a little more juicy hardware. Before, you decide which console you want, we suggest you decide what you want from a console first.