So from the Digital Foundry pre release version (which is old and there have been performance improvements since then) The PS4 has higher resolution, better shadows, improved AA and higher FPS than the Xbox One version.

Link

I spend about 70% of my time gaming on a 130" 1080p projector but I will upgrade that to a 130" 4k projector in the next couple of years, along with that upgrade I will also get a 4k capable PC to go with my consoles. For the time being my PC gaming is done on a laptop for specific games like Cities Skylines, Civ V and the upcoming Pillars of Eternity but when I get the new projector and PC I will spend 95% of my time gaming on the big screen.

I agree, at the moment it is slightly ahead so if the trend holds it is looking at around 15 million for the year, add that to the 18.5 million sold by the start of the year and you are at 33.5 million. I can see a price drop happening and that will provide a bump but I am not sure it will add 7 million consoles. There is the China launch which may help a bit but I am not sure they will be that large a market yet.

I think it is possible to hit 40 million if the stars align but it is much more likely to be in the 35-38 million bracket (assuming a price drop happens).

I am already planning on getting a PC so if Fallout 4 was exclusive to Windows / Xbox I would just push up the time frame for my purchase a bit rather than get an Xbox.

I would have thought it would be more along the lines of devs designing around the limitations because if one console can only do so much in a 33ms or 16ms period you have to design your base simulation to work within that limit otherwise you end up with two different simulations which alters the core experience.

If DX11 is having issues then it is likely the devs are doing what they can to make their games work within that limitation but they are applying it to both consoles so the basic experience is the same. They can then tweak graphics and so forth as that is just a visual enhancement.

Once DX12 is released there will be a new baseline for CPU performance. It might be the Xbox One still or it might switch to the PS4 depending on where the APIs are and the raw CPU performance of each console. As we have seen with the DX12 showings and with Mantle it really frees up the GPU to do its job so we should see each console roughly match what the PC does with equivalent GPU hardware.

I think what this shows more than anything else is how much overhead there is in DX11 and how the console CPUs, despite being quite weak, are plenty powerful enough when paired with a low overhead API such as the ones used on the consoles.

So based on more updated numbers we have the following:

1) The AMD number of close to 30 million was clarified as sold to end-users.

2) Rockstar stated that the Xbox One and PS4 had a combined install base of over 29 million.

3) Sony announced the PS4 sold 18.5 million units to consumers as of January 4th.

4) That puts a sold to users figure of Xbox One at 10.5 - 11.5 million.

5) Based on how many PS3's Sony shipped in Q3 we can work out that if Xbox 360 shipped figures are roughly on par with PS3 the Xbox One has shipped about 12.5 million units, if PS3 shipped more worldwide then Xbox One has more than 12.5 million shipped. PS3 has tanked though so it is possible that Xbox 360 managed to out ship PS3 for Q3.

6) PS4 had around 1.5 million units in the channel (19.9 - 18.5) and there were no signs that there was significant channel stuffing.

7) Xbox One seems to have had a bit more channel stuffing relative to the PS4 so putting the channel number at between 1.5 million and 2 million seems reasonable especially considering how well they did this holiday period.

8) Based on the sold to users figure about that puts Xbox One shipped units between 12 million and 13.5 million.

9) With the 10 million shipped statement from the CEO on December 3rd I find much more than 12.5 million shipped by December 31st to be pushing it a bit.

10) Based on that I would put Xbox One sold through as of 31st December 2014 at between 10.5 million and 11 million.

My initial estimate was between 9.5 and 10.5 million sold to consumers as of 31st December so it appears that it is at, or just beyond, the upper end of my estimate.

That puts the world wide sales ratio at between 1.68:1 and 1.76:1 in favour of PS4.

Overall it has been an excellent year for the PS4 and a good year for the Xbox One.

The RAM is currently cheaper but the APU is more expensive.

I think Xbox One leads in Brazil due to the ridiculous import tax there. MS has a factory there to avoid it by Sony do not.

I care more about it when the XB1 matches the PS4 in a current gen game than vice versa because there is a hardware disparity and it not showing in the final product is a curiosity. In the case of Unity that game just seems unfinished. Like they got to the beta stage and just released it before it did its QA and optimisation runs. I felt the same about Destiny to a degree although in that instance both games were 1080p 30 so the only differences to expect are effects or AA/AF so it felt less like they were leaving performance on the table as they had hit 1080p and their frame rate target.

In the case of remasters or older ports I kind of expect 1080p 30 on both, or 1080p 60 in some cases. Even then the Xbox One does fall behind such as in Metro Redux where it is a lower resolution.

In this case 900p vs 1080p is totally expected due to the hardware so it is not really news worthy.