In the wake of the Sony major announcements of the new PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro it’s become pretty clear Microsoft wants a fight. It has announced that both the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro won’t play 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs, while its Xbox One S will.

Sony didn’t make a song and dance about the UHD Blu-ray disc feature, or lack of it, which is surprising.

Firstly, Sony already knew Microsoft WOULD support the new disc format that allows for 4K and HDR quality video via the Xbox One S console.

Secondly, Sony is one of the biggest sellers of Ultra HD Blu-ray discs via its film studio, so you’d think it of all companies would be up for encouraging it more. Especially when you consider Sony used the PS3 to sneak a Blu-ray player into people’s homes as a way to push its Blu-ray discs back in the day.

Since the event, Microsoft has released a statement saying: "At Xbox, our goal is to put gamers at the centre of everything we do. The new hardware available now and next year was designed with that in mind to give gamers a choice in how they play. Starting at £249, Xbox One S is the only console available today with built-in 4K Blu-ray - a value price compared to 4K Blu-ray players. It also offers 4K video streaming plus HDR for video and gaming."

All that said, Sony has announced it will release an update next week that will make all of its PlayStation consoles HDR playback capable.

Microsoft keeps hammering home that it’s next-gen console, due out next year, will still be the best for power: "Launching holiday 2017, Project Scorpio is the next member of the Xbox One family and will be the most powerful console ever created with 6TFLOPS capable of delivering true 4K gaming.” Since the PS4 Pro should have 4.2TFLOPS it sounds like Microsoft is winning, for power at least.

'- By Luke Edwards @eelukee'