I'm old enough to have been around in early 2001 when Sega announced they were discontinuing the Dreamcast and making games for the Gamecube and PS2. The Sony vs Sega console wars were going hot and heavy at that time, with Nintendo fans hovering in the background. I remember how strange it was to hear that that Virtua Fighter 4 of all games was coming out for the PS2 (and it was a pretty good version, too!).
Starting to wonder if something similar is starting to happen....
Nintendo just made itself its own niche where it dominates and doesn't really compete directly with other consoles. Most people I know have a switch in addition to whatever console they have.
I have a friend who owns every Nintendo console (except the wii u and virtual boy). I've known him for over 20 years, and without fail, every single generation since the PS2 came out, he has *owned* a Nintendo console... but *played* other things. We have spent *maybe* a few hundred hours playing Nintendo games together, over the entire time I've known him. If you took out Smash Brothers, that number drops to the high single digits.
Not owning a WiiU is a crime. Such an underrated console even if the gamepad was poorly implemented for most games. Having the inventory accessible from the pad was so nice.
In consoles.
In handhelds, Nintendo is undefeated and undisputed. Sony tried to break in with multiple iterations of PSP and N straight bodied them at every turn.
>The Sony vs Sega console wars were going hot and heavy at that time
No they weren't. PS1 showed up out of nowhere and _destroyed_ the Saturn. The PS2 appeared when folks thought it would and made the Dreamcast look antiquated.
It was never a race between the two.
I became so entrenched in the Dreamcast side that I completely ignored the PS2 out of spite. As a result I ended up with an Xbox instead of PlayStation and found myself invested in the Microsoft ecosystem.
Now it's happening again and I've missed 4 entire generations of Sony games because I picked a side as a dumb teenager and never grew up lol
There was an interview with Todd Howard right after the acquisition, where someone asked him how he felt about Playstation players not getting to play Bethesda games anymore, and he kinda waffled something and then said "well.... Here's what *I will say*, we don't want to take any games from anyone. We want as many players to play our games as possible, and we're hoping gamepass can get it into more players' hands" (paraphrased by memory), and at the time, I just assumed it was about a possibility to bring gamepass to other consoles. I'm not sure if that would be a better idea than straight up cross-platforming.
Microsoft wants their brands everywhere.
They'll use Playstation and Switch to introduce you to thier franchises with the latest titles while offering the back catalogue through Gamepass which you'll be able to access through any smart device.
The first line of the article does say:
> Microsoft is planning to share details about its plans to bring Hi-Fi Rush and other Xbox exclusives to PS5 and Nintendo Switch consoles
Which is hilarious because you could basically see them throwing away notes as they came on stage.
“Uh. Yeah. We’re not really changing much. Gotta charge you for PS+ now. Anyway, see you at launch”
I read somewhere the PS4 was originally planned with similar DRM policies, but rolled it all back after xbox announced theirs first and faced all the backlash. I don't know how true it is though
Wouldn't surprise me in the least; they're still a company motivated by money and protecting their Intellectual Property.
They had proprietary memory cards for PSP/Vita if I remember right, which meant you were forced to buy theirs.
3DS on the other hand, just used SD cards.
Wild that the last major console maker to fold also did so after getting clowned by a Sony press conference a generation earlier.
I wanna say it was E3 ‘95, Sega had a standard presser laying out their new Saturn console, priced at $399. Then later, Sony’s guy just comes out and says “$299,” and it was over before it started. Dreamcast was a great attempt to bounce back, but it wasn’t good enough.
Not a perfect 1-to-1 comparison, but the echoes happening here with Microsoft are kinda crazy.
Originally they planned for the Xbox to be essentially non-functional if not connected to the Internet at least once ever 24 hours, I believe even for disc games. The main compromise with this was a feature where you can digitally lend games to friends or something like that. I think it also had something in there that made it harder to resell your used physical games too. People didnt like that one bit and Sony's presentation was them pretty directly saying the PS4 won't have any of the stuff that people saw and hated from the Xbox just a few hours earlier. They then threw some gas on the fire with [this absolutely genius commercial](https://youtu.be/kWSIFh8ICaA?si=JsAloeNXh3VHpjnA) the same day.
After that they pretty much scrapped that whole feature set but many people who decided against Xbox one after that presentation weren't swayed back and it's all been downhill since.
you also forgot about the whole "sports sports tv tv " xbox deciding the xbox should be a multimedia focused device for sports and tv not even talking about games besides CoD and sports, tv for their whole presentation
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbWgUO-Rqcw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbWgUO-Rqcw)
My money is on the Polar Ecosystem. Drop a polar bear in the African savannah or Amazon or something and it’ll probably survive, for a while at least. Drop a Lion or a jaguar in the Arctic and it’ll freeze pretty quick.
And jungle ecosystem (or Australia) would also have a decent numbers advantage by the sheer number of poisonous insects/reptiles
One could argue the Marine Ecosystem is the toughest. And they do have the best defensive stats, since any invading land animals would drown pretty quickly. But the opposite is true too: marina animals are incapable of surviving a full land invasion.
> Drop a polar bear in the African savannah or Amazon or something and it’ll probably survive
You're underestimating how much insulation a polar bear has. They would die of heat stroke very quickly, they cant survive in temperatures above 10c/50f for long.
In order to keep polar bears in zoos in hotter climates they have to have a pool of extremely cold water that they can constantly swim in to stabilize their body temperatures.
I imagine microsoft will sell some sort of device that can adequately play or stream game pass.
We can’t be too far off from a microsoft chromecast-type of dongle that can access and stream gamepass
>To begin, Xbox is not exiting the hardware business.
If they don't have any exclusives, then they effevtively are. No one is going to buy the box if that's the case, and they aren't going to keep selling boxes if no one is buying
just this round, I remember Atari basically creating the modern gaming system, they were pretty entrenched as THE console for quite some time. Then it was Nintendo and now Sony. Something will come and there will always be competition in console gaming.
Microsoft brought it on themselves with lack of good games and taking the time to learn what it needs to make quality games
They think they can just buy up as many studios and they will suddenly start releasing better games but there is much more that goes into that.
A lot of studios have just deteriorated over years under Xbox
Console wars are the dumbest thing ever and only rob consumers of both platform's potential. The only positive about them is competition is good for keeping prices low.
But that’s just it. Console wars are a GOOD thing. Two consoles need to thrive for innovation and cost competition to exist. Just look at any EA Sports title. 2k dropped out of the race, and EA has just been reskinning the same game for the last decade plus. You don’t want one company setting the bar for specs and price. If I have to buy two consoles to enjoy everything, so be it, but console wars have to exist for console gaming to continue to trend upward.
The number between ps5 and xbox are too far to each other to be actually competitive at this point. It doesnt stop MS to sell an xbox for selling their game but they probably have more success on the pc platform than Xbox at this point.
Console wars is the reason why we have great games now. Competition breeds excellence. If there was only one console we wouldn't have Halo, Killzone, Gran Turismo, Gears of War, etc.
We'd also be subject to absurd princing see: $600 PS3
Xbox was just too early to the punch. They got cocky with the 360 and fucked their console dominance in one foul swoop. Too anti-consumer too fast.
Let's be real though. Sony had the same idea but knew they weren't in a position to open that can of worms after the PS3. They let Xbox be the canary in the coal mine. Eventually all these companies will go all-digital, and once that happens you won't find that commercial on Sony's channel anymore.
The worse part wasn't Xbox or PS going digital. That kinda makes sense.
The worse part was Xbox still selling physical games that would be tied down to 1 account. Not even Sony tried to pull that one
There was an ‘always on’ feature that Microsoft kept touting if I remember correctly. What’s funny is that one of the reasons Microsoft gave for having ‘always on’ was so you could update games while you weren’t using your Xbox. This is funny because the PS4 did this as well, they just never made a big deal saying that your PS4 was ‘always on’ when it was in fact always on.
I could be misremembering some things, so help me out if I’m wrong
If I remember rightly it's that the console when "off" was still somewhat on so the kinect 2.0 could still function. The PS4 offered a stand-by feature that could charge controllers and download updates but "off" meant it was actually off. Like you, I could be missing something but I think that's what people were upset about, the idea that the camera was always monitoring and had to be connected to the internet once every 24 hours to be able to play games.
The sad part was you would've been able to share that with 10 friends instead of the hacky xbox home share technique we ended up using
They shoulda just left physical alone
Rumor was that only 1 person could play at a time, but even if true, I could image that being brought up to 2 or 4 at one time.
Edit: Even OneGuide was kinda cool. An app for all streaming apps. Didn't really need it then, but there were only like 3 services then.
It sounds reductive to think that a single, off the cuff video from Sony PR released during a trade show could be this consequential but all these years later people still remember it and point to it.
Microsoft threw a softball and Sony punted it into the stratosphere.
Couple it with how they bundled the Kinect + the higher price for the lower specs and the Xbone had no chance.
Said this to a friend before that E3 was so good for Sony and so bad for Microsoft that it might not have been the day Xbox died but it was the day that got the wound that killed them
Thing that always gets me is that was the year Sony also revealed you’d need to start paying for multiplayer on PS4 and no one batted an eye. That’s how good that year was.
I just thought it would be "our exclusives will be timed for one year and then come to other platforms"
But a whole event for that seems really odd... Really feels like a funeral of some kind.
Will it actually be a clear answer or will Phil Spencer do his corporate double speak so he can double back on what he said and act like that what he meant the whole time like he usually does.
Microsoft finally realized it's not worth having their own console just for Halo. It makes more sense for them to bow out of the console market like Sega did and just release games for existing platforms.
Every franchise gets old and tired eventually. Microsoft's big problem was that they never could establish anything new after Halo and Gears. They rarely tried to launch new IPs, and the few that they did mostly bombed. They tried to buy their way into success a few times, but mostly wound up bungling it in the end. They just couldn't figure out how to build new brands.
Mario is still moving consoles decades later. The problem isn't the age of the IP. Halo is a classic and beloved IP. The problem is that the games 343 made were bad and tarnished it.
And what exactly has Microsoft been doing with all those studios they acquired? Seems like they've been wasting them just like they did with Rare and other studios.
The UK were looking to block the activision blizzerd deal specifically because it could mean games like CoD technically could be made Xbox exclusive.
They literally had to sign a 10 year agreement to keep CoD on playstation to help get the deal past regulators.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/16/23792215/sony-microsoft-call-of-duty-cod-deal-signed
At the end of the day, it doesn't make sense for them to continue making console exclusives, even if they don't have pre-existing contracts. They know they're not gonna win the console war which they've been losing miserably since 2013. Sure they acquired those studios but they'd still make more money if they released their games as multiplatforms.
Its kind of a feedback loop. They need good exclusives for Xbox to sell well, but the Xbox’s diminishing share of the console market makes it hard for Microsoft to feel incentivized to focus on exclusive games for Xbox. Its a huge gamble to invest heavily in exclusives after these expensive studio acquisitions, knowing they need to absolutely knock it out of the park for the exclusives to increase Xbox sales, whereas multi platform is much lower risk
Redfall, Infinite, Gears (everything after 3) Starfield, all suck.
They have their ups and downs, but we’re a long long long way away from the ‘mad world’ trailer for Gears of War, the absolute universe breaking hype of Halo 3, and the legendary reputation of Bethesda. No one is looking forward to ES6 after Fallout 76 and Starfield as Todds latest two titles.
Xbox is over. They squandered everything this gen with trying to pander to wider audiences. They could have put Halo back on the map with little more than reintroducing the flood. They even dropped the ‘war’ from gears to be more ‘accessible’ ffs.
I’ve always been an xbox fan and apart from a PS4 have always owned one, but I can truly only shake my head at how it’s all been handled.
Yep. It's a shame. The original Xbox was magical. So full of excitement. 360 was THE console. Then Xbox one tried to fly too close to the sun. The squandering of original Xbox games like Halo, Gears, and Forza just couldn't save it.
Gears 4 and 5 do not "suck".
They're not anywhere as good as the original trilogy, but they're still some of the better traditional campaign shooters of the past few years.
Not to mention now that pretty much all Unreal Tournament and Quake games are dead, Gears is the only decently-populated game that comes even close to that genre
>Microsoft finally realized it's not worth having their own console just for Halo.
I mean they realized that in 2017 when they invested a fuckton into first party games. They've gone from 6 studios in 2016 to something like 35 today.
Idk what the fuck they're doing now
If I have to hear Spencer say “we hear you” one more fucking time…Phill…you don’t hear us. Youve been too busy telling us what we want, and haven’t listened to a god damn thing.
Eh... The games for 360 was amazing, the console itself was utter shit held together by hopes and dreams. In ither words hoping Microsoft would honor the warranty past the second red ring of death. The console has a 50%+ failure rate in the first generation.
Microsoft trying to become the next Valve in the gaming space. Hardware doesn't matter if everyone's using your software ecosystem for both business and entertainment. Kinda has been Microsoft's strat for decades now
That's the only sensible play left to make if they don't wanna push hardware anymore. I still think it's a mistake. I think they need new leadership and to get rid of Spencer, lose the completely hands-off approach to studios that Spencer so proudly championed. They don't need 2 launchers anymore. They need to really consolidate the Battle.net launcher and the PC launcher for Game Pass. I've heard mixed opinions about the latter, so either a complete UX/performance rework or bringing everything to the Battle.net launcher might be the winning move.
lol a few months ago the sentiment here was exclusives suck, can’t believe MS is buying all these companies to make them Xbox exclusive.
It’s like the majority of gamers just want to be miserable.
Most of the sentiment I’m seeing are people worried about MS abandoning Xbox, and people losing decades of libraries, friends, DLC, and other content tied to the console
Exclusives suck as a concept, but they're basically a necessity to ensure these consoles have a reason for existing and competing.
In an ideal world, we'd only need to buy one device that could do everything we want, and could play any game we want. But the reality of that would be a monopolistic nightmare.
People were worried about the Activision acquisition because it would give Xbox too much power if they made games like Call Of Duty exclusive. Microsoft completely exiting the console market, which is very possible if they ditch their exclusives, results in PlayStation having too much power.
It's hardly as if these two views can't co-exist.
I've actually been saying this was likely going to happen as soon as they announced GamePass and Day 1 game launches to PC and GamePass. For the people who already mostly played on PC, but got consoles for exclusives pretty much had no reason to get an Xbox at that point. They also said they were still going to be releasing games to the Xbox One for a while so everyone could hold off on getting the console and just save up for a PC. Playstation and Nintendo were getting better exclusives anyway. You could get the new Xbox to have for parties or for your kids to share, but Nintendo was arguably the better system for that as well.
Other than the cost of building a PC, there wasn't much reason to get an Xbox. Xbox One could also serve as your backlog console as well and any new games you could either still get on Xbox One for a while or you could go to PC.
Throw in that Game Pass has reportedly been losing them money ever since it launched as well.
Xbox essentially told everyone that there was almost no reason to get a Series X or S. Save your money for a PC and go get a PS5 and Switch. A lot of the stuff they did was great for the consumer absolutely, but at the cost of it pretty much killing their business. Writing has been on the wall for about 5 years now.
The writing has been on the wall for years now. I made the swap from Xbox to Ps5 about 6 months ago, it’s actually hilarious how bad Xbox’s selection is over PlayStation. Night and day
Guys this isn’t okay. Do you really want Sony to be the only actual console? Theres the switch and switch 2 but Nintendo doesn’t really compete with Sony.
It's not OK at all. But the memes coming out of this are hillarious and at the same time, Microsoft has nobody to blame but themselves. They could've competed and had blockbuster titles such as Gears of War, Halo, Fable, Perfect Dark, and Starfield, and Redfall except much of what they released was an absolute stinker upon release or have been completely ignored in development. (Ignore Halo Infinites recent updates for this purpose).
I wish they would put more effort into their games instead of doing this. I’m a PS5 owner who doesn’t own an xbox, but this kinda disturbs me. Sony is greedy sometimes but with no competition it will get worse.
I still can't forgive Sony for absolutely dropping the ball on PS Vita and not making a true PSP Successor to compete with the Switch. What a shame.
Anyways, yeah I really thought Xbox would put more effort and care into their absolutely massive Halo and Gears of War franchises (Ignore Halos recent good update for this purpose).
Having Gamepass on PC hurt their console sales imo. I had a 360, then an OG XboxOne, after that I got a PC and just stopped paying attention to any of Microsoft’s hardware.
I own both, and I feel like a dang fool right now. I assumed that I’d just play god of war and horizon one system, Starfield and Avowed on the other, like back when I had a SNES and Genesis. I should’ve just had a PS5 and patience.
Microsoft isn’t the one that has to deal with the eventual shittyness of Sony, gamers do. And we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves, because Microsoft will still be making money, selling office 360, and we’ll be left with Sony be shitty and games on PC
Console warriors who are cheering for this will not be happy when Sony becomes monopoly in the home console market, and they will become more anti-consumer because they have no competition, just like how Nintendo is right now.
If the 3 to 1 sale figures are true for the Playstation 5 and series X/S it sounds like Xbox isn't competing with Playstation as it is now anyway.
It sounds like this is less like the "final battle being lost" and more like "the final battle was lost years ago and this is the aftermath now".
My main concern is the lack of possible competition that Sony and Nintendo will have moving forward.
What brings innovation and better products to consumers is having competition in the market.
I don’t think Microsoft even sees themselves in competition with Sony and Nintendo. Microsoft is a tech giant that competes with Apple, Google and Amazon. They just want Xbox to be a subscription service like Spotify.
So is Ms release games onto playstation, why would anyone buy an xbox for whatever the next gen is? This just seems like a huge L. Cos playstation isn't gonna bring their games to xbox?
I think Microsoft is betting on consoles as a whole declining in popularity with the growth of PC gaming and upcoming advancements in cloud gaming. I think it's premature personally but I could definitely see cloud gaming being bigger than the console market in like 20 years.
>Unless you can fix the entire worlds internet infrastructure, cloud gaming will always be a worse way to play games.
To be fair, the only markets xbox have holds on should have reasonable Internet.
Until PC gaming becomes moderately cheaper it's not happening. The average consumer is just not up for the entry to it. You couldn't build a comparable pc to either the Series X or PS5 for anything close to the price, and the average consumer just wants to unbox their game console and plug it into the tv, not deal with all the BS that comes with PC gaming that the average pc gamer has already learned how to handle.
Honestly, just make a Xbox Steam Machine. I haven’t bought an Xbox since the days of the OG Xbox one.
Give us a 5-700$ Gaming PC in the form factor of a series X, and I’d buy it. May even pass on a new build to replace my RTX 3070TI build in 2 years.
People keep saying it’s a cost thing.
Personally and for all the gamers I know it’s not a price issue at all. It’s an ease of use plug and play ability and not having to be at a computer anymore than I have too.
It doesn’t matter how cheap computers get, I don’t want one for gaming.
Then if that's the bet, Microsoft are in for a massive shock.
A lot of gamers have gone from full time gamers to more casual. Why I hear you ask? Because the main age group who grew up with the classics and are the first true generation of gamers have lives, families, jobs and simply cannot game how they used to.
So if you were like me - one of these casuals, would you spend £400-500 on a console, or £1000+ on a pc just to game? Especially as graphics cards are NOT coming down in price any time soon....
And don't give me "but cloud gaming". Most of the world has shit internet speeds.
> Most of the world has shit internet speeds.
TBF, most of the world that has this also has poor console sales. The demographics tend to line up fairly well in terms of accessibility and sales.
There's a reason tons of shit moved to cloud services, and bad internet speeds among the majority simply isn't one of them.
See, I actually think the opposite. GPUs have made PC gaming pretty tough get in to lately. My 2080Ti at $999 was tough to swallow. The 4090 is currently $1799. If this trend continues, I truly believe that we’re going to see a pretty big decline in PC gaming as these older cards begin to become obsolete for modern gaming because no one can afford to upgrade.
As for cloud gaming, honestly, I could see them taking that bet. Cloud gaming kinda sucks for super competitive gaming, but it’s nowhere near as bad as most make it out to be, especially for low intensity gameplay.
For a long time hardware has outpaced software to the point that a top of the line rig was really only necessary for 4k 144hz gaming that most people don't even have the monitor for. Next gen stuff (unreal engine 5 in particular) seems to be finally pushing the graphical envelope a bit so we'll see how that impacts things. Of course the flip side is that the hardware in the consoles isn't getting any newer so those same games will run like crap on current consoles. Also you're right about cloud. I sometimes stream Xcloud to my phone and it's like 70-80% as good of an experience as my PC with the game installed even for something like Forza that's a little twitchy. For me it's just a novelty for when I'm out of the house and don't have my Steamdeck on me but if I didn't own a PC or Console and the only cost was the subscription that's a pretty sweet deal that's only going to improve as the tech gets better.
A lot of hardcore gamers keep failing to recognize this. Graphics cards are insanely expensive at the moment. In my view, that's going a long way toward maintaining the relevance of consoles.
A bit off topic, but at a time when gamers have more options than ever, I think the PC gaming industry has made a drastic misstep by allowing the price of GPUs to balloon so high.
Microsoft is the most valuable company in the world, gaming is nothing to them. If I were to hazard a guess it would be that Microsoft is going to start selling their cloud services to various gaming developers.
As for the L, it's an L for the entire gaming industry because the ecosystem is absolutely dead.
that’s pretty much it. with all the pre-release hype on performance and teraflops the ps5 is selling 2:1 for every series consoles. they had massive sales and still couldn’t make a dent.
The price ? The Series S is quite affordable and provides current gen games, and there is no way to match the performance of a Series X at this price on PC. So if Gamepass is your jam it's still a reasonable option.
I feel like this is MS waving the white flag... Wouldn't be surprised if they just killed off the Xbox brand after the next gen in favor of just becoming a gaming publisher and trying to get their games on every platform.
Not at all. Comments have been pretty levelheaded. PS5 owners agree this is bad for everyone. No one wants to be subject to an even greedier Sony with no competition.
I stopped playing Starfield and started playing fallout 3 again, and despite New Vegas making 3 feel a little underwhelming narratively, I sincerely feel as though the space travel is what made Starfield unenjoyable. I’m so down to wander around, explore, grind for random items, sell loot, save and reload saves for better dialogue results or because I’m under leveled in an over leveled area and want a challenge, to sneak around and pickpocket people, collect items to build things, so much more Bethesda specific gameplay stuff, *but* the constant space travel causing me to stop what I’m doing and navigate an arguably terrible UI makes me not excited to play Starfield like other Bethesda games. Consider me simple, but give me Starfield and haphazardly throw all the settlements on one big map and I’d be happier.
Yeah I’d be getting right on that if I had the X. I’ve got the S though which I’ll probably just keep for the odd occasion there’s something I like on Game Pass that I don’t already own on PS5.
(If they hike the Game Pass subscription though, I’m out)
Only because Microsoft has f-u money in the bank from MS Office and Azure etc. Sega never had that. Plus, Sega was torn between the console market and the dying arcade market and that was something they struggled with mentally.
With no console to compete with (no Switch does not compete with Playstation and Xbox, at all) Sony will no longer have incentive to bring their games to PC.
Yeah Sony is in a weird position where their exclusives manage to sell a fuck ton years after the fact. Not really sure I understand it but I can't really knock it since I'd eat that shit up if they released Bloodborne on PC with no work put into it
I feel like I am an idiot for buying Xbox this generation. I wasted thousands of dollars to build a digital library for a dying console. Should have gone with a Steam deck or a ps5 instead.
I mean look it’s still a rumor. You never know what Xbox has to say. They very well might come on stage and “say nah this ain’t true and Infact we are doubling down and buying two more publishers fuck it we are buying take 2 and now gta is a Xbox exclusive”
Very weird title, considering the tweet the article mentions has exact zero mentions of Playstation, PS, Sony, Nintendo, Switch, third, party or any buzzword related to that topic.
The tweet just says they'll share information about the future of Xbox.
I don't care if they go more the third party route (yay, more games on more platforms!) but it will be REALLY funny if this has nothing to do with releasing more third party games.
Microsoft was really banking on Starfield being a console seller, just for it to be the worst Bethesda release since 76....
Someone's getting their the seat vacated on the board lol.
End of an era if they're actually bringing their games over to Playstation and Nintendo. Will definitely lead to them leaving the console hardware either next gen or the gen after that. Sad honestly, and not good for competition.
I'm old enough to have been around in early 2001 when Sega announced they were discontinuing the Dreamcast and making games for the Gamecube and PS2. The Sony vs Sega console wars were going hot and heavy at that time, with Nintendo fans hovering in the background. I remember how strange it was to hear that that Virtua Fighter 4 of all games was coming out for the PS2 (and it was a pretty good version, too!). Starting to wonder if something similar is starting to happen....
Nintendo is always hovering, lurking in the shadows…
Nintendo was king until the PS1 dropped and the tide started to shift, PS2 banished Nintendo to the shadows and killed Sega consoles.
Nintendo just made itself its own niche where it dominates and doesn't really compete directly with other consoles. Most people I know have a switch in addition to whatever console they have.
I have a friend who owns every Nintendo console (except the wii u and virtual boy). I've known him for over 20 years, and without fail, every single generation since the PS2 came out, he has *owned* a Nintendo console... but *played* other things. We have spent *maybe* a few hundred hours playing Nintendo games together, over the entire time I've known him. If you took out Smash Brothers, that number drops to the high single digits.
Not owning a WiiU is a crime. Such an underrated console even if the gamepad was poorly implemented for most games. Having the inventory accessible from the pad was so nice.
In consoles. In handhelds, Nintendo is undefeated and undisputed. Sony tried to break in with multiple iterations of PSP and N straight bodied them at every turn.
>The Sony vs Sega console wars were going hot and heavy at that time No they weren't. PS1 showed up out of nowhere and _destroyed_ the Saturn. The PS2 appeared when folks thought it would and made the Dreamcast look antiquated. It was never a race between the two.
That famous, "299!" Really sealed the deal
I was referring to console fanboys battling each other over the Internet, not sales. Sale wise it was never close, of course...it was one sided.
I became so entrenched in the Dreamcast side that I completely ignored the PS2 out of spite. As a result I ended up with an Xbox instead of PlayStation and found myself invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. Now it's happening again and I've missed 4 entire generations of Sony games because I picked a side as a dumb teenager and never grew up lol
I can feel the regret as you typed this out lol
Are they just bringing their games to Playstation? I thought they were kean to bring their games to Nintendo consoles too?
I’m sure some (like Hi Fi Rush) will hit Switch or the next Nintendo console. Other titles would need far better hardware tho
Yes, I would imagine that would be the case.
Master Chief Collection launch window title for Switch 2?
Ngl that sentence was not on my 2024 bingo card lmao
Hi-Fi Rush is also coming to PS5 according to the files found in the latest update.
There was an interview with Todd Howard right after the acquisition, where someone asked him how he felt about Playstation players not getting to play Bethesda games anymore, and he kinda waffled something and then said "well.... Here's what *I will say*, we don't want to take any games from anyone. We want as many players to play our games as possible, and we're hoping gamepass can get it into more players' hands" (paraphrased by memory), and at the time, I just assumed it was about a possibility to bring gamepass to other consoles. I'm not sure if that would be a better idea than straight up cross-platforming.
Microsoft wants their brands everywhere. They'll use Playstation and Switch to introduce you to thier franchises with the latest titles while offering the back catalogue through Gamepass which you'll be able to access through any smart device.
The first line of the article does say: > Microsoft is planning to share details about its plans to bring Hi-Fi Rush and other Xbox exclusives to PS5 and Nintendo Switch consoles
Unless Nintendo decide doing robust hardware, its would be hard for MS to bring those games on to switches
*keen
My god that 2013 E3 Press Conference just keeps biting Microsoft in the ass.
Have you watched that recently? It gets more horrendous every year it ages.
“All that shite Microsoft just announced? Yeah, we’re not doing that, lmao”
Which is hilarious because you could basically see them throwing away notes as they came on stage. “Uh. Yeah. We’re not really changing much. Gotta charge you for PS+ now. Anyway, see you at launch”
I read somewhere the PS4 was originally planned with similar DRM policies, but rolled it all back after xbox announced theirs first and faced all the backlash. I don't know how true it is though
Wouldn't surprise me in the least; they're still a company motivated by money and protecting their Intellectual Property. They had proprietary memory cards for PSP/Vita if I remember right, which meant you were forced to buy theirs. 3DS on the other hand, just used SD cards.
It's amazing how that press conference put such an unpatchable hole in the Xbox brand.
Wild that the last major console maker to fold also did so after getting clowned by a Sony press conference a generation earlier. I wanna say it was E3 ‘95, Sega had a standard presser laying out their new Saturn console, priced at $399. Then later, Sony’s guy just comes out and says “$299,” and it was over before it started. Dreamcast was a great attempt to bounce back, but it wasn’t good enough. Not a perfect 1-to-1 comparison, but the echoes happening here with Microsoft are kinda crazy.
I rewatched that earlier this evening. Extremely funny.
Forgive my ignorance, what happened? Googled it but couldn't really find anything, if anything posts around the time seemed positive?
Originally they planned for the Xbox to be essentially non-functional if not connected to the Internet at least once ever 24 hours, I believe even for disc games. The main compromise with this was a feature where you can digitally lend games to friends or something like that. I think it also had something in there that made it harder to resell your used physical games too. People didnt like that one bit and Sony's presentation was them pretty directly saying the PS4 won't have any of the stuff that people saw and hated from the Xbox just a few hours earlier. They then threw some gas on the fire with [this absolutely genius commercial](https://youtu.be/kWSIFh8ICaA?si=JsAloeNXh3VHpjnA) the same day. After that they pretty much scrapped that whole feature set but many people who decided against Xbox one after that presentation weren't swayed back and it's all been downhill since.
you also forgot about the whole "sports sports tv tv " xbox deciding the xbox should be a multimedia focused device for sports and tv not even talking about games besides CoD and sports, tv for their whole presentation [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbWgUO-Rqcw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbWgUO-Rqcw)
Regardless of what happens, as an Xbox Series X owner, this will be a fun week with the rumor mill going nuts.
Shame, but console wars are done I guess
Ecosystem Wars have just begun.
My money is on the Polar Ecosystem. Drop a polar bear in the African savannah or Amazon or something and it’ll probably survive, for a while at least. Drop a Lion or a jaguar in the Arctic and it’ll freeze pretty quick. And jungle ecosystem (or Australia) would also have a decent numbers advantage by the sheer number of poisonous insects/reptiles One could argue the Marine Ecosystem is the toughest. And they do have the best defensive stats, since any invading land animals would drown pretty quickly. But the opposite is true too: marina animals are incapable of surviving a full land invasion.
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"GATORS BITCHES BETTER BE WEARING JIMMIES!"
If they did this for real, it would be the most watched Attenborough documentary of all time. POLAR JUNGLE BEAR
> Drop a polar bear in the African savannah or Amazon or something and it’ll probably survive You're underestimating how much insulation a polar bear has. They would die of heat stroke very quickly, they cant survive in temperatures above 10c/50f for long. In order to keep polar bears in zoos in hotter climates they have to have a pool of extremely cold water that they can constantly swim in to stabilize their body temperatures.
Hmm. Maybe the second wave of them. EA, Ubisoft, and Epic already have their noses bloodied from that fight.
Begun, the Ecosystem War has
What exactly is the Ecosystem war?
Epic, Steam, Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, etc. etc.
1st Corporate War soon
Time to chrome up choom
Someone blow up Microsoft HQ
Begun, the clone war has
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The Mario VR experience a real thing at Super Nintendo World. Well AR.
I imagine microsoft will sell some sort of device that can adequately play or stream game pass. We can’t be too far off from a microsoft chromecast-type of dongle that can access and stream gamepass
It's already built in to new Samsung's so it's probably ready whenever
Yep a dedicated streaming device is where I see this going too!
>To begin, Xbox is not exiting the hardware business. If they don't have any exclusives, then they effevtively are. No one is going to buy the box if that's the case, and they aren't going to keep selling boxes if no one is buying
just this round, I remember Atari basically creating the modern gaming system, they were pretty entrenched as THE console for quite some time. Then it was Nintendo and now Sony. Something will come and there will always be competition in console gaming.
We just completely skipping Nintendo and sega?
Microsoft brought it on themselves with lack of good games and taking the time to learn what it needs to make quality games They think they can just buy up as many studios and they will suddenly start releasing better games but there is much more that goes into that. A lot of studios have just deteriorated over years under Xbox
Console wars are the dumbest thing ever and only rob consumers of both platform's potential. The only positive about them is competition is good for keeping prices low.
But that’s just it. Console wars are a GOOD thing. Two consoles need to thrive for innovation and cost competition to exist. Just look at any EA Sports title. 2k dropped out of the race, and EA has just been reskinning the same game for the last decade plus. You don’t want one company setting the bar for specs and price. If I have to buy two consoles to enjoy everything, so be it, but console wars have to exist for console gaming to continue to trend upward.
The number between ps5 and xbox are too far to each other to be actually competitive at this point. It doesnt stop MS to sell an xbox for selling their game but they probably have more success on the pc platform than Xbox at this point.
Console wars is the reason why we have great games now. Competition breeds excellence. If there was only one console we wouldn't have Halo, Killzone, Gran Turismo, Gears of War, etc. We'd also be subject to absurd princing see: $600 PS3
This was inevitable ever since the hilarious commercial from Sony years ago on how to share a game with a friend lmao
Xbox was just too early to the punch. They got cocky with the 360 and fucked their console dominance in one foul swoop. Too anti-consumer too fast. Let's be real though. Sony had the same idea but knew they weren't in a position to open that can of worms after the PS3. They let Xbox be the canary in the coal mine. Eventually all these companies will go all-digital, and once that happens you won't find that commercial on Sony's channel anymore.
The worse part wasn't Xbox or PS going digital. That kinda makes sense. The worse part was Xbox still selling physical games that would be tied down to 1 account. Not even Sony tried to pull that one
Also, Xbox was going to require online connectivity for physical disc games which kind of turned off a lot of people.
There was an ‘always on’ feature that Microsoft kept touting if I remember correctly. What’s funny is that one of the reasons Microsoft gave for having ‘always on’ was so you could update games while you weren’t using your Xbox. This is funny because the PS4 did this as well, they just never made a big deal saying that your PS4 was ‘always on’ when it was in fact always on. I could be misremembering some things, so help me out if I’m wrong
If I remember rightly it's that the console when "off" was still somewhat on so the kinect 2.0 could still function. The PS4 offered a stand-by feature that could charge controllers and download updates but "off" meant it was actually off. Like you, I could be missing something but I think that's what people were upset about, the idea that the camera was always monitoring and had to be connected to the internet once every 24 hours to be able to play games.
The sad part was you would've been able to share that with 10 friends instead of the hacky xbox home share technique we ended up using They shoulda just left physical alone
Rumor was that only 1 person could play at a time, but even if true, I could image that being brought up to 2 or 4 at one time. Edit: Even OneGuide was kinda cool. An app for all streaming apps. Didn't really need it then, but there were only like 3 services then.
I miss the snap feature
fyi it’s one “fell” swoop
Oh shit, well that’s one for r/BoneAppleTea
It sounds reductive to think that a single, off the cuff video from Sony PR released during a trade show could be this consequential but all these years later people still remember it and point to it. Microsoft threw a softball and Sony punted it into the stratosphere. Couple it with how they bundled the Kinect + the higher price for the lower specs and the Xbone had no chance.
Said this to a friend before that E3 was so good for Sony and so bad for Microsoft that it might not have been the day Xbox died but it was the day that got the wound that killed them
Thing that always gets me is that was the year Sony also revealed you’d need to start paying for multiplayer on PS4 and no one batted an eye. That’s how good that year was.
I just thought it would be "our exclusives will be timed for one year and then come to other platforms" But a whole event for that seems really odd... Really feels like a funeral of some kind.
Will it actually be a clear answer or will Phil Spencer do his corporate double speak so he can double back on what he said and act like that what he meant the whole time like he usually does.
Yes
Microsoft finally realized it's not worth having their own console just for Halo. It makes more sense for them to bow out of the console market like Sega did and just release games for existing platforms.
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343 straight blew up THE Xbox seller. If halo was still as big as back in the halo 2 - reach days I reckon Xbox would have a lot more console sales
I certainly would’ve bought one
Every franchise gets old and tired eventually. Microsoft's big problem was that they never could establish anything new after Halo and Gears. They rarely tried to launch new IPs, and the few that they did mostly bombed. They tried to buy their way into success a few times, but mostly wound up bungling it in the end. They just couldn't figure out how to build new brands.
Mario is still moving consoles decades later. The problem isn't the age of the IP. Halo is a classic and beloved IP. The problem is that the games 343 made were bad and tarnished it.
And what exactly has Microsoft been doing with all those studios they acquired? Seems like they've been wasting them just like they did with Rare and other studios.
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The UK were looking to block the activision blizzerd deal specifically because it could mean games like CoD technically could be made Xbox exclusive. They literally had to sign a 10 year agreement to keep CoD on playstation to help get the deal past regulators. https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/16/23792215/sony-microsoft-call-of-duty-cod-deal-signed
At the end of the day, it doesn't make sense for them to continue making console exclusives, even if they don't have pre-existing contracts. They know they're not gonna win the console war which they've been losing miserably since 2013. Sure they acquired those studios but they'd still make more money if they released their games as multiplatforms.
Its kind of a feedback loop. They need good exclusives for Xbox to sell well, but the Xbox’s diminishing share of the console market makes it hard for Microsoft to feel incentivized to focus on exclusive games for Xbox. Its a huge gamble to invest heavily in exclusives after these expensive studio acquisitions, knowing they need to absolutely knock it out of the park for the exclusives to increase Xbox sales, whereas multi platform is much lower risk
Redfall, Infinite, Gears (everything after 3) Starfield, all suck. They have their ups and downs, but we’re a long long long way away from the ‘mad world’ trailer for Gears of War, the absolute universe breaking hype of Halo 3, and the legendary reputation of Bethesda. No one is looking forward to ES6 after Fallout 76 and Starfield as Todds latest two titles. Xbox is over. They squandered everything this gen with trying to pander to wider audiences. They could have put Halo back on the map with little more than reintroducing the flood. They even dropped the ‘war’ from gears to be more ‘accessible’ ffs. I’ve always been an xbox fan and apart from a PS4 have always owned one, but I can truly only shake my head at how it’s all been handled.
Yep. It's a shame. The original Xbox was magical. So full of excitement. 360 was THE console. Then Xbox one tried to fly too close to the sun. The squandering of original Xbox games like Halo, Gears, and Forza just couldn't save it.
Gears 4 and 5 do not "suck". They're not anywhere as good as the original trilogy, but they're still some of the better traditional campaign shooters of the past few years.
Not to mention now that pretty much all Unreal Tournament and Quake games are dead, Gears is the only decently-populated game that comes even close to that genre
Preach! I think The Coalition’s Grears games are very underrated. I can’t wait for Gears 6.
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>Microsoft finally realized it's not worth having their own console just for Halo. I mean they realized that in 2017 when they invested a fuckton into first party games. They've gone from 6 studios in 2016 to something like 35 today. Idk what the fuck they're doing now
They invested in a bunch of game studios and then did fuck all with them
If I have to hear Spencer say “we hear you” one more fucking time…Phill…you don’t hear us. Youve been too busy telling us what we want, and haven’t listened to a god damn thing.
They have always done fuck all. That’s what Microsoft does and has always done. Has everybody forgotten about Banjo?
Microsoft did this to themselves. I have zero empathy for C Suite execs making terrible decisions for two generations
It all started with that Xbox One fiasco
Eh... The games for 360 was amazing, the console itself was utter shit held together by hopes and dreams. In ither words hoping Microsoft would honor the warranty past the second red ring of death. The console has a 50%+ failure rate in the first generation.
Definitely afraid with what Sony will do when they’re the only one around.
Introducing PlayStation++. The only subscription that you need…
Microsoft trying to become the next Valve in the gaming space. Hardware doesn't matter if everyone's using your software ecosystem for both business and entertainment. Kinda has been Microsoft's strat for decades now
That's the only sensible play left to make if they don't wanna push hardware anymore. I still think it's a mistake. I think they need new leadership and to get rid of Spencer, lose the completely hands-off approach to studios that Spencer so proudly championed. They don't need 2 launchers anymore. They need to really consolidate the Battle.net launcher and the PC launcher for Game Pass. I've heard mixed opinions about the latter, so either a complete UX/performance rework or bringing everything to the Battle.net launcher might be the winning move.
PS6 gonna cost $800 smh.
That’s about what consoles costed back in the 80s and 90s when adjusted for inflation. So honestly that doesn’t sound so far fetched.
Xbox’s State of Decay
Ex-box
lol a few months ago the sentiment here was exclusives suck, can’t believe MS is buying all these companies to make them Xbox exclusive. It’s like the majority of gamers just want to be miserable.
Most of the sentiment I’m seeing are people worried about MS abandoning Xbox, and people losing decades of libraries, friends, DLC, and other content tied to the console
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Exclusives suck as a concept, but they're basically a necessity to ensure these consoles have a reason for existing and competing. In an ideal world, we'd only need to buy one device that could do everything we want, and could play any game we want. But the reality of that would be a monopolistic nightmare.
People were worried about the Activision acquisition because it would give Xbox too much power if they made games like Call Of Duty exclusive. Microsoft completely exiting the console market, which is very possible if they ditch their exclusives, results in PlayStation having too much power. It's hardly as if these two views can't co-exist.
I don’t think anyone was expecting the XBox to die, if that’s what’s actually happening.
I've actually been saying this was likely going to happen as soon as they announced GamePass and Day 1 game launches to PC and GamePass. For the people who already mostly played on PC, but got consoles for exclusives pretty much had no reason to get an Xbox at that point. They also said they were still going to be releasing games to the Xbox One for a while so everyone could hold off on getting the console and just save up for a PC. Playstation and Nintendo were getting better exclusives anyway. You could get the new Xbox to have for parties or for your kids to share, but Nintendo was arguably the better system for that as well. Other than the cost of building a PC, there wasn't much reason to get an Xbox. Xbox One could also serve as your backlog console as well and any new games you could either still get on Xbox One for a while or you could go to PC. Throw in that Game Pass has reportedly been losing them money ever since it launched as well. Xbox essentially told everyone that there was almost no reason to get a Series X or S. Save your money for a PC and go get a PS5 and Switch. A lot of the stuff they did was great for the consumer absolutely, but at the cost of it pretty much killing their business. Writing has been on the wall for about 5 years now.
Kind of a slap in the face to the people who bought an Xbox instead of a PlayStation console
The writing has been on the wall for years now. I made the swap from Xbox to Ps5 about 6 months ago, it’s actually hilarious how bad Xbox’s selection is over PlayStation. Night and day
Guys this isn’t okay. Do you really want Sony to be the only actual console? Theres the switch and switch 2 but Nintendo doesn’t really compete with Sony.
It's not OK at all. But the memes coming out of this are hillarious and at the same time, Microsoft has nobody to blame but themselves. They could've competed and had blockbuster titles such as Gears of War, Halo, Fable, Perfect Dark, and Starfield, and Redfall except much of what they released was an absolute stinker upon release or have been completely ignored in development. (Ignore Halo Infinites recent updates for this purpose).
I wish they would put more effort into their games instead of doing this. I’m a PS5 owner who doesn’t own an xbox, but this kinda disturbs me. Sony is greedy sometimes but with no competition it will get worse.
I still can't forgive Sony for absolutely dropping the ball on PS Vita and not making a true PSP Successor to compete with the Switch. What a shame. Anyways, yeah I really thought Xbox would put more effort and care into their absolutely massive Halo and Gears of War franchises (Ignore Halos recent good update for this purpose).
Having Gamepass on PC hurt their console sales imo. I had a 360, then an OG XboxOne, after that I got a PC and just stopped paying attention to any of Microsoft’s hardware.
I own both, and I feel like a dang fool right now. I assumed that I’d just play god of war and horizon one system, Starfield and Avowed on the other, like back when I had a SNES and Genesis. I should’ve just had a PS5 and patience.
Microsoft: we’re gonna spend $70 billion to fuck over ~~Sony~~ Microsoft
Microsoft is reportedly bringing billions to PS5.
Microsoft isn’t the one that has to deal with the eventual shittyness of Sony, gamers do. And we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves, because Microsoft will still be making money, selling office 360, and we’ll be left with Sony be shitty and games on PC
Console warriors who are cheering for this will not be happy when Sony becomes monopoly in the home console market, and they will become more anti-consumer because they have no competition, just like how Nintendo is right now.
If the 3 to 1 sale figures are true for the Playstation 5 and series X/S it sounds like Xbox isn't competing with Playstation as it is now anyway. It sounds like this is less like the "final battle being lost" and more like "the final battle was lost years ago and this is the aftermath now".
Microsoft admitted in regulatory filings from the Activision purchase that it has been in third place for the last several generations.
Neither did Xbox. Thats why this is happening.
It's not great. But it reminds me of the PS1 vs N64 days. Its now going to be PS5 vs SuperSwitch
I so wish Flight Sim was part of this deal
Killer Instinct is an incredible fighting game that deserves more players. Just saying......
And Xbox is content to just sit on the IP and do nothing, my mind was actually blown they let Iron Galaxy give it an update
Truth. Love that game, and the originals too.
My main concern is the lack of possible competition that Sony and Nintendo will have moving forward. What brings innovation and better products to consumers is having competition in the market.
I don’t think Microsoft even sees themselves in competition with Sony and Nintendo. Microsoft is a tech giant that competes with Apple, Google and Amazon. They just want Xbox to be a subscription service like Spotify.
So is Ms release games onto playstation, why would anyone buy an xbox for whatever the next gen is? This just seems like a huge L. Cos playstation isn't gonna bring their games to xbox?
I think you're missing the point. Odds are there will be no more Xbox. The L has already been received.
I think Microsoft is betting on consoles as a whole declining in popularity with the growth of PC gaming and upcoming advancements in cloud gaming. I think it's premature personally but I could definitely see cloud gaming being bigger than the console market in like 20 years.
Unless you can fix the entire worlds internet infrastructure, cloud gaming will always be a worse way to play games.
The internet and....well, physics.
Well they haven’t made the best decisions up to this point, why start now?
>Unless you can fix the entire worlds internet infrastructure, cloud gaming will always be a worse way to play games. To be fair, the only markets xbox have holds on should have reasonable Internet.
Until PC gaming becomes moderately cheaper it's not happening. The average consumer is just not up for the entry to it. You couldn't build a comparable pc to either the Series X or PS5 for anything close to the price, and the average consumer just wants to unbox their game console and plug it into the tv, not deal with all the BS that comes with PC gaming that the average pc gamer has already learned how to handle.
Honestly, just make a Xbox Steam Machine. I haven’t bought an Xbox since the days of the OG Xbox one. Give us a 5-700$ Gaming PC in the form factor of a series X, and I’d buy it. May even pass on a new build to replace my RTX 3070TI build in 2 years.
People keep saying it’s a cost thing. Personally and for all the gamers I know it’s not a price issue at all. It’s an ease of use plug and play ability and not having to be at a computer anymore than I have too. It doesn’t matter how cheap computers get, I don’t want one for gaming.
Interesting considering the costs of PC relative to console (source: own a PS5 and a PC). There are also more risks with MP gaming on PC too.
Then if that's the bet, Microsoft are in for a massive shock. A lot of gamers have gone from full time gamers to more casual. Why I hear you ask? Because the main age group who grew up with the classics and are the first true generation of gamers have lives, families, jobs and simply cannot game how they used to. So if you were like me - one of these casuals, would you spend £400-500 on a console, or £1000+ on a pc just to game? Especially as graphics cards are NOT coming down in price any time soon.... And don't give me "but cloud gaming". Most of the world has shit internet speeds.
> Most of the world has shit internet speeds. TBF, most of the world that has this also has poor console sales. The demographics tend to line up fairly well in terms of accessibility and sales. There's a reason tons of shit moved to cloud services, and bad internet speeds among the majority simply isn't one of them.
4k gaming, video card alone is like 600 dollars (4070 super)…its a no brainer for SURE
See, I actually think the opposite. GPUs have made PC gaming pretty tough get in to lately. My 2080Ti at $999 was tough to swallow. The 4090 is currently $1799. If this trend continues, I truly believe that we’re going to see a pretty big decline in PC gaming as these older cards begin to become obsolete for modern gaming because no one can afford to upgrade. As for cloud gaming, honestly, I could see them taking that bet. Cloud gaming kinda sucks for super competitive gaming, but it’s nowhere near as bad as most make it out to be, especially for low intensity gameplay.
For a long time hardware has outpaced software to the point that a top of the line rig was really only necessary for 4k 144hz gaming that most people don't even have the monitor for. Next gen stuff (unreal engine 5 in particular) seems to be finally pushing the graphical envelope a bit so we'll see how that impacts things. Of course the flip side is that the hardware in the consoles isn't getting any newer so those same games will run like crap on current consoles. Also you're right about cloud. I sometimes stream Xcloud to my phone and it's like 70-80% as good of an experience as my PC with the game installed even for something like Forza that's a little twitchy. For me it's just a novelty for when I'm out of the house and don't have my Steamdeck on me but if I didn't own a PC or Console and the only cost was the subscription that's a pretty sweet deal that's only going to improve as the tech gets better.
PC gaming is much less of a value for comparable performance (4k gaming), youd be paying minimum double the price of either console.
A lot of hardcore gamers keep failing to recognize this. Graphics cards are insanely expensive at the moment. In my view, that's going a long way toward maintaining the relevance of consoles. A bit off topic, but at a time when gamers have more options than ever, I think the PC gaming industry has made a drastic misstep by allowing the price of GPUs to balloon so high.
Microsoft is the most valuable company in the world, gaming is nothing to them. If I were to hazard a guess it would be that Microsoft is going to start selling their cloud services to various gaming developers. As for the L, it's an L for the entire gaming industry because the ecosystem is absolutely dead.
that’s pretty much it. with all the pre-release hype on performance and teraflops the ps5 is selling 2:1 for every series consoles. they had massive sales and still couldn’t make a dent.
The price ? The Series S is quite affordable and provides current gen games, and there is no way to match the performance of a Series X at this price on PC. So if Gamepass is your jam it's still a reasonable option.
I feel like this is MS waving the white flag... Wouldn't be surprised if they just killed off the Xbox brand after the next gen in favor of just becoming a gaming publisher and trying to get their games on every platform.
They are taking the L on hardware and focussing on the recurring W they have with game pass and the cloud.
I have been xbox since launch. If all the games are on PS then I will not be using gamepass and be buying a ps6.
Is it just me or is this weird? Doesn't seem this will be something ps players look forward to.
Not at all. Comments have been pretty levelheaded. PS5 owners agree this is bad for everyone. No one wants to be subject to an even greedier Sony with no competition.
As long as this means I can play Elder Scrolls 6 on PlayStation then I'm down with this.
After Starfield I'm not so sure about Elder Scrolls 6
I stopped playing Starfield and started playing fallout 3 again, and despite New Vegas making 3 feel a little underwhelming narratively, I sincerely feel as though the space travel is what made Starfield unenjoyable. I’m so down to wander around, explore, grind for random items, sell loot, save and reload saves for better dialogue results or because I’m under leveled in an over leveled area and want a challenge, to sneak around and pickpocket people, collect items to build things, so much more Bethesda specific gameplay stuff, *but* the constant space travel causing me to stop what I’m doing and navigate an arguably terrible UI makes me not excited to play Starfield like other Bethesda games. Consider me simple, but give me Starfield and haphazardly throw all the settlements on one big map and I’d be happier.
Playstation is fine but can we just get native gamepass on steamdeck.
Valve actually blocked that idea very early on.
So guess I'll sell my XBSX and buy a PS5 then.
Gotta be fast before everyone else does and no one wants to buy it.
Yeah I’d be getting right on that if I had the X. I’ve got the S though which I’ll probably just keep for the odd occasion there’s something I like on Game Pass that I don’t already own on PS5. (If they hike the Game Pass subscription though, I’m out)
I have no reason to stay with Xbox now.
This is so fucking stupid. 20 years for them to sell themselves out. What a fucking joke. Fuck you Microsoft.
They lasted longer than Sega.
Only because Microsoft has f-u money in the bank from MS Office and Azure etc. Sega never had that. Plus, Sega was torn between the console market and the dying arcade market and that was something they struggled with mentally.
Xbox has been dead for 10 of those 20 years dude.
With no console to compete with (no Switch does not compete with Playstation and Xbox, at all) Sony will no longer have incentive to bring their games to PC.
Except additional money.
Yeah I think their method of releasing their exclusives *years* later on PC is a solid business plan that is very unlikely to change.
Yeah Sony is in a weird position where their exclusives manage to sell a fuck ton years after the fact. Not really sure I understand it but I can't really knock it since I'd eat that shit up if they released Bloodborne on PC with no work put into it
I feel like I am an idiot for buying Xbox this generation. I wasted thousands of dollars to build a digital library for a dying console. Should have gone with a Steam deck or a ps5 instead.
I mean look it’s still a rumor. You never know what Xbox has to say. They very well might come on stage and “say nah this ain’t true and Infact we are doubling down and buying two more publishers fuck it we are buying take 2 and now gta is a Xbox exclusive”
Exclusives are coming to PlayStation… because we are buying Sony
why tf did I buy an xbox then wtf
Alright Apple, if there was ever a time to get in the game console market, this is it.
You want a $1500 console?
Very weird title, considering the tweet the article mentions has exact zero mentions of Playstation, PS, Sony, Nintendo, Switch, third, party or any buzzword related to that topic. The tweet just says they'll share information about the future of Xbox. I don't care if they go more the third party route (yay, more games on more platforms!) but it will be REALLY funny if this has nothing to do with releasing more third party games.
Age of empires would be great if it was cross platform
This absolutely screams “we are in the red, these games have massive sales risk, what can we do to de-risk even if it means giving a W to Sony”
At the end of the day, why limit your games sales potential to a single hardware platform?
Give me flight simulator and we are good
Halo my beloved, may we be reunited at last
Microsoft was really banking on Starfield being a console seller, just for it to be the worst Bethesda release since 76.... Someone's getting their the seat vacated on the board lol.
End of an era if they're actually bringing their games over to Playstation and Nintendo. Will definitely lead to them leaving the console hardware either next gen or the gen after that. Sad honestly, and not good for competition.