The great gaming console war between Sony and Microsoft has raged on for almost two decades now. Of course, before Microsoft entered the foray, there were others who were competing with Sony. Once Xbox arrived, in 2001, it’s pretty much been a two-way battle. With much more experience than Microsoft and, let’s face it, a far superior exclusive lineup, Sony has reigned supreme in the rivalry. However, there have been hushed rumours that Xbox may finally be ready to wrestle control of the market from PlayStation this year.
For starters, the Xbox Series X team has been quite forthcoming with their updates and announcements. On the other hand, the PlayStation 5 team has been silent on most fronts. A Bloomberg report in April claiming Sony planned on toning down their launch plans only added to the pessimistic aura surrounding PS5. Despite all that, Sony continued keeping its stance.
All the while, the positive updates kept rolling out of Microsoft. Be it the hardware, the specifications, their first-party games, and third-party collaborations, they were sharing it all. Gradually, the narrative was shifting towards Xbox truly giving PS a run for its money this time around.
And then, out of the blue, Sony turned up the heat.
PS5 the silent killer?
Chances are you already know all about Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, a wildly successful and popular game engine. Well, Epic recently gave us a reveal of Unreal Engine 5. But what’s Sony got to do with it you ask?
Well, Epic revealed Unreal Engine 5 by running it on PS5. To say the next-gen game engine looks mesmerizing would be an understatement.
Understand that this is a carefully curated demo with the objective of exhibiting the game engine’s capabilities. It would be folly to expect graphics like this right off the bat on any console. But we will get there soon enough.
Yes, Xbox will run the Unreal 5 engine too, but we have no idea how well that would be. A lot was made of certain aspects of the Series X being better than PS5. However, that is all on paper for now. With this demo, Sony has shown us exactly what its console can do, while we have yet to be enthralled in a similar manner by the Series X.
While Sony’s decision to keep quiet about PS5 looks to have started paying off already with this display, the same cannot be said of Xbox. Last week, Microsoft organized a showcase to reveal a few of its third-party gameplays. The hype around the event failed to live up to the expectations, sowing the seed of doubt in everyone’s mind.
You simply can’t help but feel Sony has already raced past Microsoft and taken back the initiative with one stroke. Let’s see how the build-up to the next-gen consoles progresses from here on out. Xbox Series X needs to truly turn it up a notch once again if they’re to convince us this is their year.
