Microsoft showed off the Xbox Series X during The Game Awards last year and since then has frequently dropped nuggets of information about the console and the hardware that will power it. Sony hasn't shown as much yet, but a few weeks ago, the platform holder finally gave us an official presentation, delivered by hardware architect Mark Cerny, wherein he talked about PlayStation 5 and some of its features, including the console's lightning-fast harddrive.
This does not seem to worry Xbox boss Phil Spencer much, and when IGN recently asked him how he thinks Microsoft's new console compares to Sony's, he said that they feel "really good" about it, but was also his usual humble self and had some compliments to share:
"I felt really good - no doubt - about how Xbox Series X lines up [with PS5]. I think Mark [Cerny] and the team did some really good work on the audio processing that they've talked about, their SSD technology is impressive, we like that.
"We saw the work that they did, but we took a holistic view on our platform; from CPU to GPU to RAM to throughput, Velocity architecture, latency, back compat. It took us years to get to this point. The planning takes a long time, so I will definitely have respect for any platform team that's launching.
"But when we finally saw [Sony's] public disclosure, I felt even better about the choices that we made about our platform, and I kind of expected I would. "
Spencer also revealed that the hardware team has tried to deliver the most powerful console, but in a way that makes sense for Xbox, without caring too much about what the competition is doing:
"We give ourselves a price envelope - obviously we have to do that, otherwise we just blow the thing up - [and] we did want to hit a certain performance goal - which I've said is why the console looks the way it does.
"It isn't really a relative exercise to compare to someone else, but it takes a lot of long-term planning."
Xbox Series X launches later this year, and Microsoft recently reconfirmed that this is still the case despite the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Thanks, VG247.