Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or Wii U: Which Video Game Console Is Right for You?

Still playing games on an Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii? Don’t be embarrassed. Like any gadget, it takes time for a new console to iron out the bugs and establish its identity … which brings us to the 2014 holiday season. The Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U are duking it out again, but a lot’s changed since last year. Not sure which console is right for the giftee on your list? Then you’re in the right spot.

First, three handy facts about buying a home console these days.

1. It’s all about exclusives.
If you like Halo, get an Xbox One. If you’re excited about Uncharted, invest in a PS4. If Mario and Link are your BFFs, buy a Wii U and call it a day. There’s just no getting around fandom, and no getting around the fact that certain games only appear on certain systems. You will never see Mario on your Xbox One, and if that’s enough to sway you, we wholeheartedly encourage you to pick up the system that contains the franchises and characters you care about most.

2. The prices are neck and neck.
This used to be a defining difference between the systems, as the Xbox One spent most of its first year priced at $500, a full $100 more than the PS4 and a good $200 more than the Wii U. So that made things easier. These days, though, all three systems are priced within the $300 to $400 range, and frankly, all three are worth it.

3. No one system is currently far and away better than the others.
I know: This isn’t the kind of advice you were looking for. But it’s the truth. Thanks to a rash of price drops, great new games, and packed 2015 calendars, all three consoles have stepped up. They’re all looking good right now.

That being said, no console is infallible. Read on for a breakdown of each system.

Xbox One

There’s no sugarcoating it: Microsoft’s new console had a disastrous start.

The Xbox One was priced $100 more than the PS4 and launched with a less-than-stellar suite of exclusive games. If you had asked us six months ago which home system to buy, the Xbox One wouldn’t have been the first name on our lips.

But that was then. By unbundling its unpopular Kinect sensor, the company’s been able to match — and, for this holiday season, beat — Sony’s PS4 on price. A management shuffle put the emphasis back on games rather than entertainment apps. Tack on some very cool exclusives, and the system is suddenly competitive with the PS4.

Price: $350 (through Jan. 3)
What used to be the Xbox One’s Achilles’ heel has turned into its bionic arm. And that $350 price tag gets even sexier when you consider bundles for Sunset Overdrive and Assassin’s Creed.

[Related: The Best Black Friday Deals on Video Games and Systems]

The pros
Both the Xbox One and PS4 benefit from full third-party support, which is a fancy way of saying that most big-budget, well-known games appear on both systems. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, FIFA 15, Far Cry 4, and countless others are available for these two competing consoles.

But some games are “preferred” on one or the other thanks to exclusive deals for downloadable content. In the case of the Xbox One, you’ll get first dibs on downloadable content for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Dragon Age: Inquisition, two of the biggest games this season.

The Xbox One also boasts arguably the most impressive suite of exclusive games this season. Sunset Overdrive, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Forza Horizon 2, Titanfall, and Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved are all excellent games that you won’t find on Sony’s or Nintendo’s consoles.

And while Microsoft has refocused the system on games over other apps and services, it still handles those well. Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu are all here, as is HBO GO, which has yet to appear on the PS4 or Wii U.

The cons
Its interface stinks. Mirroring the universally disliked tile format of Windows 8, it’s a messy grid of graphics and green squares. It’s often tough to find what you’re looking for, since important information is buried a few clicks down. And if you try to control the system via Kinect, you’ll quickly find yourself shouting at your console in frustration.

The Xbox One is also not quite as developer-friendly as the PS4. If you’re the sort who obsesses over frame rates and resolutions, you might be miffed at the Xbox One’s occasional performance issues. Though if you’re the sort who obsesses over frame rates and resolutions, you should probably be playing games on a PC.

The future
Its past might be shaky, but its future is solid.

2015 brings Xbox One owners first-party games like Fable Legends, Quantum Break, and of course Halo 5: Guardians. Gamers hoping to play Rise of the Tomb Raider in 2015 will need Microsoft’s console, as PS4 owners won’t get Lara Croft’s next game until 2016. Add to that more heavily anticipated third-party games like Evolve, Batman: Arkham Knight, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and it’s looking like a good year ahead.

Best for: Action-oriented gamers, as most of the company’s first-party development is geared toward action games.

PlayStation 4

While the Xbox One stumbled out of the gate, the PS4 soared.

Due to both its own strengths and the Xbox One’s limitations, Sony’s console was an immediate sales hit. Back in August, it passed 10 million units sold, a historically torrid pace. With a design focused purely on getting you in and out of games quickly, terrific bargains through its PlayStation Plus service, and smart integration with the handheld Vita, the PS4 could do no wrong for most of 2014.

It’s hit a few snags lately, though, in the form of some online connectivity and firmware issues.

Price: $399
For most of the year, that was just fine. But now that Microsoft has temporarily lowered the Xbox One’s price to $350, Sony has lost its most reliable bragging point. It’s still worth it, though.

The pros
Like the Xbox One, the PS4 will see most of the big-name games you’re familiar with — and like the Xbox One, some of those games get better treatment on Sony’s machine than on Microsoft’s.

The PS4 version of Bungie’s popular shooter Destiny, for instance, gets a few exclusive pieces of downloadable content for a solid year. Next year’s Batman: Arkham Knight will also include some exclusive PS4 content. Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition packs some PS4-exclusive gear.

[Related: Review: Addictive ‘Destiny’ is a Blast but Struggles to Tell its Tale]

Sony’s system is also home to a wealth of critically acclaimed downloadable indie games, such as Transistor, Velocity 2X, and Rogue Legacy. And though gamers griped when Sony upped the price of its PlayStation Plus service to $50 a year, Sony’s tossed in an embarrassment of free games to sweeten the deal (the most recent freebies include the critically acclaimed The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and stylish arcade dogfighter Luftrausers).

Interoperability between the PS4 and the handheld PlayStation Vita is the best in the business; many games support Cross-Play and Cross-Save, which allows you to play and share a saved game between the console and the portable. Sony also recently released Share Play, which essentially lets you temporarily give another PS4 owner the reins of a game you own that he doesn’t.

Compared with Microsoft’s wonky Xbox One interface, navigating through the PS4 is quick and easy, plus its standard gamepad is generally comfier.

The cons
Unfortunately, its exclusive games lineup isn’t so hot. Driveclub, Sony’s premier first-party racing game, was ruined by online connectivity issues. Anticipated steampunk shooter The Order: 1886 was pushed into 2015, leaving most of the heavy holiday lifting to the decent but lonely LittleBigPlanet 3. Both Nintendo and Microsoft have better exclusive holiday lineups.

Sony’s also had problems with its mandatory firmware updates, the most recent of which was causing some consoles to lock up and crash. Firmware updates were a source of frustration to PS3 owners, and it’s a little troubling to see issues crop up on the new system, too, even if Sony quickly corrected them.

The future
Bright, particularly when it comes to upcoming games.

In addition to The Order, 2015 brings PS4 gamers Bloodborne, the spiritual follow-up to the terrific (and terrifically hard) Dark Souls games. A new Uncharted is due out by next holiday. Perhaps most exciting is No Man’s Sky, the massive spacefaring game that stole our heart at E3 this past year, which is expected in (we hope) the near future for the PC and PS4. Tack on all sorts of third-party games like Evolve, Batman, Mortal Kombat X and Star Wars: Battlefront (all coming to Xbox One as well), and owning a PS4 looks great for 2015.

Best for: Eclectic gamers. You’ll find a little bit of everything on the PS4.

Wii U

Remember the Wii U? Launched in 2012, had a couple of games, neato fake tablet controller thingie? It’s had a rough go. Its sales have been abysmal, games take forever to come out, and it’s totally behind the curve when it comes to online connectivity.

But never count out Nintendo. The company responded to these complaints in 2014 by quietly cranking out some of the year’s best games, and the Wii U has suddenly morphed into a beast of a system.

The price: $300 (Deluxe bundle)
That makes the Wii U the most affordable of the three home consoles. Plus, for $300 you can choose between three different Deluxe sets, each of which includes two free games. Note: Skip the Skylanders: Swap Force bundle, as it comes with the 8 GB Wii U system. The Deluxe bundles come with the 32 GB version. You want that one.

The pros
Games. Great ones, even, and ones that you can play only on a Wii U.

Love mascots and fighting? Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U has finally arrived, and it’s excellent. Grown-up gamers can hop into the well-armed heels of Bayonetta 2, one of the year’s best over-the-top action games. Mario Kart 8 is possibly the best Mario Kart ever, and indie sensation Shovel Knight is a downloadable retro dream. And the surprisingly cool Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is due out in early December.

[Related: Review: ‘Mario Kart 8’ Races to the Front of the Wii U Pack]

The best thing about all these games is that they work. In a year marred by big games shipping with technical gaffes (I’m looking at you, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, LittleBigPlanet 3, Driveclub, and like a dozen more), Nintendo’s big games come out highly polished and largely glitch-free. It might not be quite as powerful, but the Wii U is proving to be significantly more stable than its competitors.

Another win: The Wii U’s tablet gamepad has proved to be incredibly useful in resolving the ongoing dispute between parents and kids over the living room TV. Most games can be played using the tablet’s screen, leaving the TV free for Mom, Dad, or your significant other.

The cons
While the games have gotten better, Nintendo’s console is still several steps behind the Xbox One and the PS4. Its online setup is stuck in 2006, it lacks the compelling achievement/trophy system that drives gaming on the other consoles, and its suite of non-gaming apps pales in comparison.

More problematically, the Wii U has lost the support of many third-party game makers, and in turn doesn’t see many of the year’s biggest games. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Grand Theft Auto V, Minecraft, Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition, Far Cry 4, Tomb Raider, either new Assassin’s Creed game — the list is exhaustive, and grows by the day. Nintendo has, for better or worse, created another walled garden with the Wii U.

The lack of software also means that Wii U owners can go months between big releases. You’ll play it in spurts, and then the system sort of vanishes for a while.

The future
Perhaps its improved sales will bring back those crucial third-party game makers, but even if it doesn’t, there are still more than a few reasons to be excited about the Wii U in 2015.

New Kirby and Yoshi games are coming, as is the clever Mario Maker, which lets you build your own Super Mario levels. Multiplayer paint shooter Splatoon, a favorite from E3, also arrives. A new Star Fox is scheduled, too, but the biggest game, hands down, is The Legend of Zelda for the Wii U. Here’s hoping Nintendo actually gets all these games out on time, and at a steady pace.

Best for: Families and hardcore Nintendo fans. And hardcore Nintendo families.

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