War is coming, but not just any type of war.

In this war, sleep is diminished, grades take a steady decline and countless Doritos are lost to hungry soldiers. Red-eyed and shaggy-bearded, these soldiers are fueled purely by Mountain Dew and the strive escape to a virtual paradise.

It is not a familiar type of war fought on a battlefield, it is a virtual race through camaraderie and entertainment.

It is a console war.

In what seems like a long, overdue wait, the next generation of video game consoles is on the horizon. Sony’s Playstation 4 is set to launch Nov. 15, with Microsoft’s Xbox One lined up a week later on Nov. 22.

News has been bouncing around the two consoles all summer in what resembles a type of presidential race, with each company trying to sell its product in the public eye and bash its opponent in the process. Microsoft has even redone its entire console policy based on negative publicity and outcry.

Each is making strides in the entertainment field, pushing further and further to synthesize video games as a cultural norm in all living rooms. No longer are teenage males the core audience, as each company is aiming its sights at all ages, genders and races. Advertisement has taken a broader scope, showing how anyone can have fun with a controller in hand.

Technical specifications are painting each console as more than just a gaming device.

Kinect, love it or hate it, has done a great job at getting the whole family involved with the Xbox 360, and Microsoft plans to take this even further with establishing Kinect 2 as a requirement for all Xbox One consoles. Xbox One stands for “All in one. Input one,” because Microsoft plans to utilize the Xbox One as living room hub of entertainment. Users can attach cable boxes to the device to use it as a sort of DVR, it also plays Blu-ray DVDs and has the capability to browse the Internet all from one device, even with voice and motion control via Kinect 2.

Sony has done a good job of keeping it simple for the consumer and sticking to what it knows best: games. While Microsoft fumbles around with extra devices, online restrictions and subscriptions, Sony has kept its core audience at heart in producing a next generation device that is simple, yet more adapt to today’s online infrastructure.

Crunching the numbers, PS4 is stronger in both RAM memory and both its central processing and graphics processing units, with both systems packing a 500GB hard drive. Digital games will be a big part of this next generation, with physical discs slowly dissolving. The systems can download entire games, so driving to the rental store may be a thing of the past.

Price point is one of the most important concerns for consumers, and Sony has an edge over Microsoft with the PS4 launching at $399 while the Xbox One launches at $499. It seems Sony has the advantage in launch date, price and policy, but time will tell which company emerges victorious. Pre-orders for both consoles are at an all-time high, with many retailers already sold out of both devices.