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PS4 vs Xbox One: console specs are "fairly marginal," says Microsoft

Xbox One and PlayStation 4 specs only have a marginal difference, according to a Microsoft Australasia executive.

It comes from Gameplanet's interview with Microsoft's Australasian vice president of retail sales & marketing Alan Bowman.

While reflecting on the differences offered by Xbox One, Bowman explained, "We've got a unique value proposition, and from just a pure specs perspective it's always gonna be a fairly marginal difference. The purists are gonna argue the toss, but I think it comes down to the games."

He added, "You're gonna see great exclusive games on Xbox One, and when you look at the cross-platform games, and there's gonna be exclusive content on Xbox One. We'd like to be in more markets - this is a global business - but it's also a long-term business, and we'll progressively launch in more markets over the coming year."

Bowman also commented on Xbox One in Japan, and he wasn't as positive. Last year I interviewed a pair of Japanese indies on how the Xbox brand is perceived in Japan, and the feedback wasn't good.

"That has been an ongoing challenge," he concluded. "Being a local brand makes such a huge difference in Japan. Sony are so strong in Japan as its their home base, and they certainly get a lot of support from the customer as well as the ecosystem - the local third-party developers, who primarily publish for Sony.

"We had moments midway through the life of the 360 where we'd see a sales spike if we had Japanese developer content released. Japan is very [local] content-driven. Same applies for Korea, same applies to Taiwan. Most of north Asia is very content-driven."

Do you think 2014 will be a big year for Xbox One? Let us know below.

Via OXM.

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Dave Cook

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Dave worked on VG247 for an extended period manging much of the site's news output. As well as his experience in games media, he writes for comics, and now specializes in books about gaming history.

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