Microsoft beats Sony to yet another media feature
... and most people will likely write it off as not being important.
And that feature is media playback from USB. Both consoles were badgered at launch for lacking this which was supported in both last gen systems and missing from both at launch. This is also a complimentary feature to other big one they beat the PS4 to, which was support for external hard drives.
Support for external drives was easier to write off. When the Xbox One launched it, it only supported storing things that the Xbox One already supported. And since the PS4 allowed the internal drive to be easily upgraded most argued (rather poorly) that the PS4 technically already had the feature.
And, as I argued before, there is a HUGE difference between supporting external drives and supporting upgrading the internal drive. It costs more for the same amount of storage, you can't exploit performance benefits of having the OS and games on separate physical drives and there is no real hot swap-ability. As I argued in the past, the only time an upgradeable internal drive shines is for the sake of portability. And this isn't a portable gaming system. So those that will benefit for that should occupy a small percentage of users.
But more importantly... Sony is now even further behind Microsoft when it comes to media delivery. Media playback is useless from an internal drive on a gaming console. And, it isn't just USB media playback that was announced. It will also support streaming from DLNA servers potentially eliminating the need for an intermediary piece of hardware (USB stick, external drive). But, for me, the USB support for media is huge. Most of my media library is already on external drives, and there is probably a decent sized segment of the market that can either say the same, or for whom the need to transfer to an external drive isn't a concern at all or even preferential.
This isn't, by any means, an "I told you so" type moment to those who chose the PS4 out of the gate instead of the Xbox One. This is probably (at least in part) a result of Sony outselling MS. The increased pressure on the company of late has lead to some radical changes in their OS development process and delivery. If the Xbox One was trouncing the PS4, it is very likely that the roles would be reversed and Sony would be pumping out new features more frequently in an attempt to win consumers over. And I feel that is exactly what is happening here. I hope they keep these practices up in Redmond even if they do manage to reclaim the lead.
And that feature is media playback from USB. Both consoles were badgered at launch for lacking this which was supported in both last gen systems and missing from both at launch. This is also a complimentary feature to other big one they beat the PS4 to, which was support for external hard drives.
Support for external drives was easier to write off. When the Xbox One launched it, it only supported storing things that the Xbox One already supported. And since the PS4 allowed the internal drive to be easily upgraded most argued (rather poorly) that the PS4 technically already had the feature.
And, as I argued before, there is a HUGE difference between supporting external drives and supporting upgrading the internal drive. It costs more for the same amount of storage, you can't exploit performance benefits of having the OS and games on separate physical drives and there is no real hot swap-ability. As I argued in the past, the only time an upgradeable internal drive shines is for the sake of portability. And this isn't a portable gaming system. So those that will benefit for that should occupy a small percentage of users.
But more importantly... Sony is now even further behind Microsoft when it comes to media delivery. Media playback is useless from an internal drive on a gaming console. And, it isn't just USB media playback that was announced. It will also support streaming from DLNA servers potentially eliminating the need for an intermediary piece of hardware (USB stick, external drive). But, for me, the USB support for media is huge. Most of my media library is already on external drives, and there is probably a decent sized segment of the market that can either say the same, or for whom the need to transfer to an external drive isn't a concern at all or even preferential.
This isn't, by any means, an "I told you so" type moment to those who chose the PS4 out of the gate instead of the Xbox One. This is probably (at least in part) a result of Sony outselling MS. The increased pressure on the company of late has lead to some radical changes in their OS development process and delivery. If the Xbox One was trouncing the PS4, it is very likely that the roles would be reversed and Sony would be pumping out new features more frequently in an attempt to win consumers over. And I feel that is exactly what is happening here. I hope they keep these practices up in Redmond even if they do manage to reclaim the lead.
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