What’s the True Price of Next Generation Gaming?

Unless you live in another solar system you will know that the NEW next generation consoles have both released. The PS4 made its début first with the XBox One following suit. Arguments for which one is better than the other have been going on and will continue to go on for a while, but how many people realize the true cost of next generation gaming? Well if you haven’t bought one yet, let me help make your decision…well, more difficult or at least more painful.

The Break Down – There can be only One!

Microsoft has gotten the most grief for price coming out of the gate because it is $100 more than the PS4 out of the gate.  The Xbox One will set you back a wallet breaking $500 for the basic system which comes with the Kinect bundled in and one controller.

Now not many people will buy just the One and use it as is. Not sure if you can control your temper? Get the Complete 3 year warranty for only $70. Now, you need a game right? Add another $60 for your favorite title (CoD Ghosts, BF4, AC4).  Oh wait, each of those games usually has some fancy add ons that you want (Premium or Season Pass, remember those?) so you can tack on another $60 to keep you gaming for a while. Actually, to use those you will want to be online with your friends too, so a 12 month subscription to Live is roughly $60. Wait, online gaming with your friends might require you to chat. Kinect allows you to do that but most like the head set. $25 for a basic but a good gaming head set is closer to $70. Don’t want to play online but want to play with friends? Then grab another controller with a charger set for $75. The good news is that a blue ray player is now built-in so you can sell your old one along with your 360 for a few bucks to help with your funding.

So after all is said and done you can expect the One to dip into your pockets for an approximate cost of $900. The cost of course goes up for each of those new games you buy because the One is not backwards compatible with 360 games. So most people will break the cool $1k mark for a typical set up with a couple of games. What about the competition?

PS4 -the win?

The PS4 hit the shelves first with a ton of momentum due to the Xbox One’s pre-release woes. The base point for the PS4 was a whopping $100 cheaper than its main competitor (anyone care about the Wii U?) at a $400 start. Not a bad start right?  Well lets add the extras.

Sony no longer lets you game online for free so tack on the $50 for a 12 month PlayStation Plus subscription. Another $70 quality head set. $60 extra controller for your buddy. Not as many active players in the PlayStation world as the Kinect, but the Move add-on will nab you for about $60. Oh and the games. $60 a piece with the same add-on goodies at $60 more. Where does that put us?  Well with anything other than the 1 year warranty included we hit in around the $800 range.  Again that is with just one game. Add another game or two and we are pushing toward the $1k mark.The not so good news is that if you had the PS3 then you can only trade that in because you probably didn’t buy a separate blue ray player. Still helps a bit with the cost though.

So the truth is, if you compare accessory for accessory and game for game, the difference, well it’s not as clear because the cost of either console ends up being an uppercut to the holiday budget. Oh the pain of responsible gaming (Hey, I’m a married/parent gamer!)

The Winner, by Split Decision is….

Well I have to leave that up to you guys. Comment below with your choice. Which console did you go out and buy? Or did you buy them both and now run your PS4 through your XBox One?

Now before you rake me across the coals with the add ons I realize that not everyone is going to buy every thing I listed and the true cost of gaming is priceless. The hundreds of hours of entertainment is worth more than that right? The point is, they are both expensive so the price of gaming isn’t a decisive factor in which console is better than the other. It all comes back to preference of system with the graphics, controller, usability, history and those fun things. Let those details decide which way to go. Either way, Christmas is coming so start working that overtime if you haven’t already picked up a system.