November has come and gone, and brought with it the launch of not only one console, but two (the Xbox One and PlayStation 4).  Both consoles have already gotten in to the hands of millions of happy gamers, and are on track to be sold out for a long time.

According to both Microsoft (Xbox One) and Sony (PlayStation 4), each of their consoles have sold over 2 million units.  Sony hopes to move even more consoles in February with the launch of their new game “InFamous: Second Son” and Microsoft plans to sell many consoles with the launch of their highly anticipated new game “Titanfall.”

Speaking of games, both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launched with a bevy of new games; some of them are great and others, not so much. PlayStation launched with many titles, but the two system exclusive titles (the reason to pick one system over another) were met with mixed reaction.  While many enjoyed the new “Killzone: Shadow Fall,” the other game “Knack” was received very poorly, with most people finding it to be boring and forgettable.

The Xbox One faired slightly better, with “Forza Motorsport 5” and “Dead Rising 3” garnering a lot of positive reaction from gamers.  The launch titles weren’t perfect however, with “Ryse: Son of Rome” being panned by many gamers for being too repetitive and unoriginal.

The consoles launched fairly smooth, but each had a few problems in the start.  In the first few days that the PlayStation 4 was out, the console’s online service had server issues, with many gamers unable to download the system’s day one update, which was needed for many of the system’s functions.  The servers were up within a few days however, and are now running at full capacity.

The Xbox One servers launched very smoothly (which could be due to Microsoft’s networking experience with their “Windows” operating system), but there were multiple reports of consoles with a broken disc drive or the kinect not working properly.  While hardware problems are typical for new devices, the amount of consoles affected was not known.  Like the PlayStation, most of these problems were solved quickly after launch.

Despite these problems, both consoles will make great new additions to the living room.  With the power in both the hardware and software, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have a long life ahead of them.  If the last generation of consoles taught us anything, it’s that the console that ships at the beginning of the generation is nothing like the console at the end of a generation.  The consoles are going to grow and adapt for a long time to come.  With the promise that this generation shows already, one thing is certain:  It’s a great time to be a gamer.