Photo: Soumil Koumar, Pexels
IT’S interesting watching the console wars from a territory that participants in said war clearly see as a major piece of turf they want to conquer. While I’m sure that buses, subway walls and billboards are blazing out adverts for the Xbox Series X/S and the PS5 over in the UK, Europe and North America, down here in South Africa, you can only see them in retail outlets – and thanks to the PS5 selling out incredibly quickly, in this territory you can only find the new Xbox.
Over the last eight or so years – you know, the years stretching forward from launch of the PS4 and Xbox One – consumers in this neck of the woods have had to seriously consider their relationship with console manufacturers. At the turn of the century, the original Xbox and the PS2 weren’t what one would call ‘cheap’ at retail point, but they didn’t break the bank either.
As the hardware has become more powerful over time, Microsoft and Sony have priced their wares more highly; if you have to pay for a console –a fact that a lot of the gaming media seem to conveniently forget from time to time – you’re looking at a rather large financial outlay. The sort of monetary commitment that may make one question whether or not to junk the whole console debate, pay a little bit extra and invest in a PC.