Ps5 vs. Series X/S: Which next gen system are you leaning more towards?

Agreed that it's not accurate to say they have no future in gaming, but disagree that Microsoft are still catching up. With 25 million Game Pass subscribers and their development pipeline, they have well and truly caught up. They've not overtaken Sony yet but people are certainly paying attention to all the seeds Microsoft is planting. It would be naive not to think Sony needs to be visibly doing the same thing, since this is how Sony got so far ahead in the first place (back when 360 was the powerhouse)

Playstations are still outselling Xbox though right? They had the last gen in the bag, and have an early lead here still. Not to diminish the successes and the progress Xbox have made, Gamepass especially. Xbox have massively increased their share of exclusive developers, but it remains to be seen when that will bear fruit. Could be a whole generation before all those studios deliver console selling exclusive games. Meanwhile, Sony still have a pretty good slate and are benefitting from a lot of high profile sequels that are just around the corner.
 
I think the focus on which company sells the most units is actually what has let Xbox gain so much ground. Sony have been very confident about having the better machine since pre-launch, but they really did neglect the service side of things. So PS has sold about 13 million units, compared to Microsoft's 6.7 mil, so they're obviously ahead... But how when you throw 25 million Game Pass subscribers into the mix, that's a lot more money coming every month.

It's just a different ballgame and I think Microsoft have a very different metric for success these days. And if those subscribers stick around, that's just revenue that continues to grow and grow in a way hardware does not.
 
Xbox have massively increased their share of exclusive developers, but it remains to be seen when that will bear fruit

I believe a number of those games come out this year/early next year, incuding the first Bethesda exclusive Redfall. Don't forget they acquired a bunch of great new studios 2-3 years ago too, like Obsidian. Once the games start coming, it's only going to increase.

I think the trajectory for Microsoft is pretty clear, but it's not so clear for Sony. They've got some great titles, no doubt, and very keen for those exclusives. But it's the rest of the platform where I think they'll be losing ground.

I think more and more PS5/PS4 owners are investing in Game Pass for PC, and since it's cross play and affordable, it's never been a better offer. And when you're suddenly getting certain PC games for free that you can still play with PS friends, it only means more titles you're not gonna buy on Playstation.

TBH right now I think Playstation is the iTunes store and Xbox is Netflix. No one is denying the enormous success of Playstation but again, think it's naive to not see the way the industry is heading and how effortlessly Microsoft is leading that convo.
 
I understand where you are coming from. And I would feel the same about losing COD on Playstation if I were in your position. However, I very much disagree with your latter point. To say Sony has no future in gaming, unless they buy Take Two, is premature and hyperbolic, imo.
I appreciate your response. You said a lot of things that I want to respond to so I'm gonna break it down.

I understand that what I said comes off as dramatic. When things like this happen I always imagine the worst case scenario.
As far as I know, COD has been absent from the Nintendo Switch, and yet that has not stopped the Switch from being widely popular and successful. Is there no future in gaming for Nintendo?

Yes, losing COD on Playstation would be a huge blow to Sony, no question. If MS ends up buying Take Two as well, would that be an additional blow to Sony? Yes, of course. But if Sony can continue to play to its strength of releasing high-quality 1st party titles, then it should, at a minimum, be able survive in the gaming space just like Nintendo has.

True, the Playstation brand may no longer be the dominant console. But as long as there is a market and demand for their 1st party titles, then I don't see why there can't be some kind of future for Playstation.
Here is the thing about the Switch, and the Ps5. Nintendo's IPs are by far the most well known and successful IPs in video games of all time. Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Smash, Pokemon, ALL of these are household names. And Nintendo has been able to be massively successful just off of their own IPs.

In a world where mS continues to buy literally all of the third party publishers, big or (relatively) small - Take Two, Ubisoft, Sega, Capcom, Konami, whoever else, then leaving Sony with nothing but their own first party studios, there is absolutely no way they will be able to replicate what Nintendo has.

List of best-selling video game franchises - Wikipedia

Sony's top selling video game franchise is Gran Turismo, and that does not even come close to Nintendo's lowest selling of their biggest video game IPs. Sure, Sony's IPs are a lot newer and fresher compared to Nintendo's dated ones, but that's Sony's choice to invest in newer ideas from their studios which is awesome and perfectly fine - but it does not carry the same weight as what Nintendo is doing. Nintendo can keep releasing new titles from the same IPs and they'll have an upwards trajectory of hardware and software sales. The Switch is on pace to outsell the Ps4.

Meanwhile, on Ps5 (and on Ps4 throughout its lifetime), all of Sony's best selling games were third party. Call of Duty is the best selling video game series on PlayStation, not any of Sony's own IPs. God of War 4 sold over 20 million copies, and it took about three years to reach that milestone. Call of Duty can do that within one year, and it's a series that has annual releases.

Nintendo doesn't need third party support to succeed, but Sony does. In fact, most of Sony's success has been through third party support.

And there are many paths for Sony to stay in the game besides buying Take Two. For the price of Take Two, Sony could probably buy up multiple Japanese studios which it already has a long history with, like Square, Capcom, and Konami. Just buying those three studios alone would help consolidate and strengthen Playstation's position as being the home of JRPGs and Fighters.

Those type of games already tend to be exclusive to Playstation by default, so the landscape wouldn't change much for Sony if they made those studios 1st party. What it would do is lock down exclusivity for those popular franchises like Final Fantasy and Street Fighter, and keep them out of the hands of MS or other companies like Tencent, Google, and Amazon.
Final Fantasy used to be exclusive to PlayStation up until FFS13. That was back during the seventh generation when Ps3 was losing one exclusive after another. The biggest blow for me was when Tekken 6 was announced to be multiplatform too.

Sony has timed exclusive deals with Square Enix, that's why FFS16 so far has only been announced for Ps5 and why only just last year FFS7R was released on PC. But that's all Sony ever does with third party publishers; timed exclusive deals. The exception is probably Street Fighter 5, and I don't think Capcom was happy with the sales of that game.

I'm pretty sure before Activision was acquired by mS, Sony had a deal with them for timed exclusive dlc on CoD for playstation before it ever arrived on Xbox or PC. So far, because all they do are these timed exclusivity deals, I don't think Sony will see it necessary to buy any of the Japanese publishers either.

I do agree with you though. I can see mS purchasing EA next. Maybe even Ubisoft. If there is one Western publisher Sony should acquire it's Take Two, and I think they should also acquire Sega, Square Enix, and Bandai Namco. That would even the playing field and make me feel a lot better; if both mS and Sony have about an even amount of publishers that were once third party. But once again, I don't think Sony will ever do that.
I mean, Sony does have a future. They are just going to have to accept having Game Pass on Sony devices. That is Microsofts end game here.
Sony is working on something called Spartacus and from what I heard, it is supposed to be some competition for Game Pass. But that to me is too little too late, seeing as how Game Pass already has 25 million subscribers. Spartacus cannot get off of the ground running when the other side already has a huge install base.

Also, wouldn't putting Game Pass on Ps5 also mean putting Halo on Ps5? Why would Microsoft ever agree to that? I would think that their end game is just to eliminate interest in Ps5 as interest in Series X just continues to grow alongside the attractive offer that is Game Pass.
 
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Also, wouldn't putting Game Pass on Ps5 also mean putting Halo on Ps5? Why would Microsoft ever agree to that? I would think that their end game is just to eliminate interest in Ps5 as interest in Series X just continues to grow alongside the attractive offer that is Game Pass.

Simple, Microsoft isn't inherently a hardware company. They are a software company. And I am pretty certain there would be some things excluded from a PS Gamepass.
 
Yeah I mean PC has it's own game pass, theoretically they could do the same for Sony. That said, I simply cannot see Sony ever accepting the very bad optics of running Game Pass on their own platform. I think maybe if their own Game Pass service ends up crashing and burning and they become desperate, perhaps then, but they're not going to come to that service easily I don't think.
 
If there were a game pass on PS5 it would probably put a cap on the max growth for Spartacus. I could see people rotating subs between the 2 rather than staying subscribed to both year round.
 
I think the focus on which company sells the most units is actually what has let Xbox gain so much ground. Sony have been very confident about having the better machine since pre-launch, but they really did neglect the service side of things. So PS has sold about 13 million units, compared to Microsoft's 6.7 mil, so they're obviously ahead... But how when you throw 25 million Game Pass subscribers into the mix, that's a lot more money coming every month.

It's just a different ballgame and I think Microsoft have a very different metric for success these days. And if those subscribers stick around, that's just revenue that continues to grow and grow in a way hardware does not.
Also with something like that there is no risky reset every 7 or so years like you get with console hardware. We've seen how risky that was for PS going from the most successful console with PS2 to PS3 and then for Xbox with 360 to X1, and wii to wii U. With a sub service there is no reason to lose overall users as new generations come and go, especially if that service can be accessed across multiple consoles, pc, mobile, direct TV, browsers etc.
 
Simple, Microsoft isn't inherently a hardware company. They are a software company. And I am pretty certain there would be some things excluded from a PS Gamepass.
How is it even Gamepass then if there is content excluded? They might as well call it Gamepass-Lite or something if not everything is available on it when the service is on non-mS platforms.
 
I was trying to think of a singular place to post this article, but since it's relevant to the big three I guess I'll bump this thread to post it here. The Financial Times is pretty much declaring Microsoft a too-distant third place contestant in the console war:
 
Microsoft cares more about you playing on Windows rather than Xbox. The current state of Xbox is by design.
 
How is it even Gamepass then if there is content excluded? They might as well call it Gamepass-Lite or something if not everything is available on it when the service is on non-mS platforms.
Yes, that’s what it would effectively be. Many sub services already have tiers and pricing structures so it’s not a huge step.
 
Microsoft cares more about you playing on Windows rather than Xbox. The current state of Xbox is by design.
I’m happy to play on pc full time if they want to push me that direction. Would be nice to have access to at least a chunk of my purchased Xbox games through streaming and keep my gaming history. No idea what’s really possible.
 
I’m happy to play on pc full time if they want to push me that direction. Would be nice to have access to at least a chunk of my purchased Xbox games through streaming and keep my gaming history. No idea what’s really possible.
Sign into Xbox on PC and see what's in your library. This is a big reason why I moved to PC, having my games trapped on specific hardware seems ridiculously archaic to me. The Xbone being a disaster killed consoles for me.
 
Yes, that’s what it would effectively be. Many sub services already have tiers and pricing structures so it’s not a huge step.
they have to create a different name for it then. because the question "is this on gamepass?" will have several different meanings otherwise. but a question like "is this on netflix?" doesn't change in meaning unless you're in a different country. but this is about platforms, not countries/regions
 
they have to create a different name for it then. because the question "is this on gamepass?" will have several different meanings otherwise. but a question like "is this on netflix?" doesn't change in meaning unless you're in a different country. but this is about platforms, not countries/regions
Yeah, still not a big deal IMO. They already made it convoluted for little benefit on the Xbox side whereas here it would be convoluted for potentially significant benefit.
 
Sign into Xbox on PC and see what's in your library. This is a big reason why I moved to PC, having my games trapped on specific hardware seems ridiculously archaic to me. The Xbone being a disaster killed consoles for me.
I won't be able to check till Sunday. What should I be able to see? All XBox games I own on pc? I did hear a while back that Xcloud streaming would include owned games so I guess it would make sense for streaming. That would be enough for me and also should mean that the ecosystem can still exist even without a console.
 
Yeah, still not a big deal IMO. They already made it convoluted for little benefit on the Xbox side whereas here it would be convoluted for potentially significant benefit.
that significant benefit wouldn't be for the hypothetical subscribers of gamepass on Ps5 or Switch, though. if the pricing is the same, then the people on those install bases are going to feel like it's a ripoff.
 
that significant benefit wouldn't be for the hypothetical subscribers of gamepass on Ps5 or Switch, though. if the pricing is the same, then the people on those install bases are going to feel like it's a ripoff.
It won't be the same price. Game Pass already has tiers for different prices for different content offerings. No point going to the effort of putting it somewhere if it's at a price where noone can be bothered to subscribe to it, especially as those platforms already have their own sub services.
 
It won't be the same price. Game Pass already has tiers for different prices for different content offerings. No point going to the effort of putting it somewhere if it's at a price where noone can be bothered to subscribe to it, especially as those platforms already have their own sub services.
I agree. but all of this is moot if Microsoft can't even convince Sony or Nintendo to put the service on their platforms in the first place. :funny:
 
I agree. but all of this is moot if Microsoft can't even convince Sony or Nintendo to put the service on their platforms in the first place. :funny:
Yep, it would have to be worth it for them. Who knows what the plan is and what they intend to offer. If it did happen then game pass could improve a fair bit though.
 
Yep, it would have to be worth it for them. Who knows what the plan is and what they intend to offer. If it did happen then game pass could improve a fair bit though.
improve in terms of the library? it's one thing to have Sony & Nintendo agree to having gamepass on their systems, but it's another to get their games on the system as well.
 
improve in terms of the library? it's one thing to have Sony & Nintendo agree to having gamepass on their systems, but it's another to get their games on the system as well.
More revenue so more money to get more games on there. Not Sony/Nintendo games, more and better/bigger indie multiplats than are currently on there.
 
More revenue so more money to get more games on there. Not Sony/Nintendo games, more and better/bigger indie multiplats than are currently on there.
I see. as it stands right now how big of a difference is there between gamepass on Xbox and PC? those are the only two platforms, right?
 
I see. as it stands right now how big of a difference is there between gamepass on Xbox and PC? those are the only two platforms, right?
There are some games suited to mouse and keyboard that are only on pc but I think it’s otherwise similar. If you pay for Game Pass Ultimate, pc game pass is included in that. If game pass were extended to PS or Switch, I think the highest tier might include all of them.

Only 2 platforms where you can download and play native. Otherwise you can play through XCloud streaming on mobile or browsers.
 

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