Earlier today, Sony has announced technical specifications of the PS5 during a conference meant for Game Developers Conference (which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Specs included eight AMD Ryzen Zen 2 cores with up to 3.5GHz frequency, Radeon RDNA 2 graphics engine that supports ray tracing, 16 gigs of GDDR6, 448 gigs of memory bandwidth, and 825 gigs of custom internal storage. It will support 4K at 120 frames per second and has an expansion option. Expansion storages were soon announced that it would only be Sony certified. The PS5 is also backwards compatible, 120% clearing any doubts. Though it’s concerning since Sony did mention “Almost all” titles would be playable. We can expect some of the most popular ones to be included. The Sony PlayStation 5 specs reveal came a few days after Microsoft announced details of their upcoming Xbox Series X console. Console Wars Console Wars is a longstanding tradition among gamers on defending and bashing the other consoles. Sometimes it’s done in good spirits with light jokes and a tad of sarcasm here and there. Sometimes people take it too seriously, but let’s not step into that direction. Between the Xbox Series X and the PS5, Microsoft’s console is a behemoth with monster specs. The difference gap is not too wide compared to Sony’s own champion, but performance-wise, only the most hardcore gamers will see to tearing down every bit of detail to compare the two consoles. But consoles are one thing. Exclusive games are another battlefield altogether and are often what determines the console to get. Microsoft has released sequels to their popular titles time and again, such as Halo, Forza, and Gears of War, with a few sprinkle additions like Sunset Overdrive. Sony has pretty much done the same with Uncharted and God of War. Though the latter’s latest installment saw to a massive gameplay change from the PS2 and PS3 titles. We also got Spider-Man and Bloodborne, which sold so much copies that it got Xbox boss, Phil Spencer, to congratulate Sony. (Which was a clever marketing move as it got people to talk about it). Though one of the biggest criticism of Sony exclusives is that, most of them play like movies with extended cutscenes and dialogues that cannot be skipped. Another criticism, one of PS4’s exclusive, Horizon Zero Dawn, was announced to move on to PC, something I think shouldn’t be bothersome, as this is the PS4’s final year, after all. But it did raised concerns if more Sony titles will be “former” exclusives. I suppose that would depend if you want to play the game now or several years later when a new console is about to launch. In recent years, Microsoft has acquired a number of game developers, including Obsidian Entertainment who developed Fallout: New Vegas. This leads to the speculation that Microsoft is gearing up to launch an overwhelming number of Xbox Series X exclusives. We haven’t had any official announcements yet except for a new Halo game. It will be interesting to stay tuned on what games both Sony and Microsoft will announce to reel in buyers. Though, if you’re a gamer who doesn’t care for exclusives, most third-party titles will no doubt be available for both consoles, and most probably would lean in toward Xbox Series X for performance. Pricing could be a big factor as well, whichever one is slightly less costly could win a few hearts. Personally, games would be the biggest factor. In my own subjective opinion, all Sony needs to do is announce Bloodborne 2 as a PS5 exclusive and the Xbox Series X would be obliterated from existence.