By Mark Kawalya
The Xbox Series X was a powerful console that surpassed the PlayStation 5 in some ways, but this was short lived. The PlayStation 5 has outsold Microsoft’s new consoles by two to one, according to a VGChartz sales comparison. Microsoft seems to be running down the clock of this console generation. The Xbox Series X is still a powerful gaming console. However its limited library of exclusives makes the UGX1,810,000 console far less compelling than the similarly priced PlayStation 5 (UGX1,840,000).
For anyone getting into modern console gaming for the first time, it makes more sense to go for a PlayStation 5 instead of the Xbox Series X. Sony’s console has a wider array of noteworthy exclusives and more innovative haptics with its DualSense controller. It’s digital edition is also cheaper than the disc-less Series X. If you’re a Halo fan, the Xbox Series X is pretty much your only choice for a premium console (though the $300 Xbox Series S is a solid option for secondary TVs, especially when it’s on sale).
The Xbox Series X is still powered by an 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2 GPU, similar to what’s inside the PlayStation 5. It also has 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, 10GB of which runs at a higher bandwidth than the PS5’s memory. The Series X’s larger GPU gave it a slight edge over Sony’s console early on, but in practice that doesn’t amount to much. Occasionally some third-party titles would run a bit more smoothly on the Xbox, but both consoles still had trouble balancing the demands of visual fidelity and performance.
The Xbox sales slump made it clear why Microsoft didn’t try to compete with its own mid-cycle refresh. It is sad to see the company fail to deliver any sort of innovation. A redesigned 2TB all-digital Series X would have been a useful replacement for the base model. It also would have included a revamped controller, with improved haptics (likely similar to Sony’s DualSense). A direct cloud connection for playing streamed games would also have been good.
In terms of exclusive games, Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription is the strongest argument for owning an Xbox. However, the company has increased the monthly price of the “Ultimate” plan to UGX 80,000 which includes day-one access to new titles and a large library of games for Xbox and PC. Sony’s competing PlayStation Plus subscription isn’t as robust as Game Pass, but it still offers a large array of older games and cloud streaming support.
The Xbox Series X is a good option for playing Microsoft’s titles and Game Pass, but if you’re choosing between the Series X or PlayStation 5, Sony’s console is a smarter choice. Microsoft could revive the console generation with a Xbox 360 revival, but it needs to focus on having more games people want to play. With numerous notable developers, Microsoft may be able to solve this problem. That being said, the Xbox Series X is good enough to satisfy Microsoft fans. Everybody else would probably be better off buying a PS5.
