Microsoft Director was Impressed and Surprised by the PlayStation 4 Pro

The PlayStation 4 Pro has often been referenced alongside the Xbox One X with Sony's console coming out almost a year before the new Xbox, but according to Microsoft's Albert Penello, he was impressed and surprised by the PS4 Pro's last November.

Penello, the senior director of product management and planning for Microsoft, spoke to MCVUK recently about the PS4 Pro. The Microsoft director was asked about the competition that the PS4 Pro would create for the Xbox One X since both offer significant performance enhancements and was questioned on whether or not he felt that Sony had beaten them to the punch with the release.

"I give them a lot of credit for what they did there," Penello said. "But for me, the most interesting observation is that we both arrived at a similar idea even if the execution is slightly different."

He went on to say that the industry takes interesting turns in development and added that they had no idea what Sony had up their sleeves before they announced the PS4 Pro.

"This business tends to diverge and converge in interesting ways, and obviously we don't know what they're doing. We don't have insight into what their plans are, so when they announced the Pro, I was as surprised as anybody else was."

But for those that claim Microsoft is trailing behind Sony with the release of the Xbox One X, he also added that they weren't simply reacting to Sony's moves.

"They had a different idea in mind for what they wanted to build, so in retrospect it may seem like we were reacting to what they were doing," he said. "But people in the business know that this has been in the works for years, and we have to lock the specs years in advance."

As far as 4K gaming is concerned, Penello assured that they're invested in the feature for the long run and aren't simply treating it as a fad or gimmick.

"We saw the 4K shift coming," he said. "We don't jump on every technology that comes along, we pretty much skipped 3D if you remember in the 360 era, so we really believe in 4K. We were convinced and we wanted to create a box that was the showcase device for 4K televisions. That was our design."

The Xbox One X releases on Nov. 7 for $499.