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[Katatonic]

What's most scary is that even with having multiple rejected consoles spanning the last decade and only going further downhill, worse mismanagement of game studios than Disney with movie studios (at least Disney actually produces), the company with the smallest user base somehow wants to be the gatekeeper of the industry.

 

[Crayon]

What's most scary is that even with having multiple rejected consoles spanning the last decade and only going further downhill, worse mismanagement of game studios than Disney with movie studios (at least Disney actually produces), the company with the smallest user base somehow wants to be the gatekeeper of the industry.

Sometimes I think too many people there actually believe the social marketing alternate reality they create. XBox is always secretly winning and going to pass playstation any day now.

 

[Freelance Yakuza]

I don't get this.

How does the author think he's going to change the current situation?

wishful thinking

 

[Unknown?]

Maybe Phil is wrong. Not in the short term but the long term. If they have years of having great games than things can change. They have to be consistent with quality releases though and it will take some time for them to sell on the same level as the competition.

Thing is, though, even with not amazing(average to good) games Sony never went years without big first party titles.

 

[DForce]

The narrative changes based on how well Xbox sales are doing.

During the start of this generation, people expected Xbox to do much better and compete with Sony in console sales because they now have the most powerful console and a budget console targeting casual consumers. People also said they're no longer going to suffer because they're not going to deal with another E3 2013 ever again.

It was no doubt a smart attempt by Microsoft and it's clear that they really cared about console sales.

Stock issues became a problem and Microsoft was relatively close because Microsoft was able to produce the Xbox Series S at such a high rate. There were signs that the demand for this console wasn't high, but this was also ignored and people wanted us to praise Microsoft.

You remember, Xbox winning Black Friday, winning in UK for a bit, and the best-selling console in North America for 3 straight quarters.

Now Sony has been producing more consoles at such a high rate and now console sales don't seem to matter anymore because Sony continues to widen the gap.

It's been said for years that it's always about games. This has been denied for many years.

 

[Beechos]

This is sus isn't ms always touting the xbox series is the fastest/highest selling xbox to date.

 

[MasterCornholio]

This is sus isn't ms always touting the xbox series is the fastest/highest selling xbox to date.

Depends on when they last said that. It's possible that it was at some point but it might not be the case now.

 

[yazenov]

You know MS is in deep trouble when the usual suspects aren't even around these sales threads anymore to spin the narrative in favor of MS. It's game over.

Sales threads were more fun when there was some hope for their console to succeed. Now its just reality setting in.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

No, there is no turning things "around" at this point. They can mitigate bleeding but they aren't "turning things around" unless Sony decides to somehow completely flop the rest of the gen.

Spencer outright stated this himself in that interview a while ago.

 

[Unknown?]

This is sus isn't ms always touting the xbox series is the fastest/highest selling xbox to date.

Nope, they stopped saying that.

 

[mckmas8808]

Yup. They've had plenty of words but only games will talk now.

They screwed up BIG time with the Xbox Series S. That's one of their first mistakes.

 

[DenchDeckard]

You know MS is in deep trouble when the usual suspects aren't even around these sales threads anymore to spin the narrative in favor of MS. It's game over.

Sales threads were more fun when there was some hope for their console to succeed. Now its just reality setting in.

Acceptance is a great thing. Makes people forget about the wars and actually play games. There's such a huge game coming out on Friday that I don't think people are caring about sales wars?

Dunno.

Probably good that most can accept it now and just enjoy the rest of the generations games?

Who am I kidding lol

 

[mckmas8808]

If the PS5 gets to 60% in North America, it's OVER! No way they can recover if the gap becomes that wide.

 

[DenchDeckard]

If the PS5 gets to 60% in North America, it's OVER! No way they can recover if the gap becomes that wide.

For the life of me, I can't believe the xbox one and ps4 were that close in the US. 55 to 45 isn't that much.

The rest of the world the xbox one got cream pied.

 

[Montauk]

How long has MS’ flop era been now? 10 years?

 

[jm89]

How long has MS’ flop era been now? 10 years?

They need to get rid of don mattrick and put phil in charge.

Once phil is in charge everything will change.

 

[Humdinger]

They hide the S/X split as well as the total sales numbers.

This data comes from a combination of leaked information, applying YoY increase or decrease percentages, and industry analyst reports.

Oh, ok. Same as last gen, then. I thought something had changed.

 

[fart town usa]

I'm so out of touch that I honestly can't wrap my head around the factors that are causing Sony to be so successful.

 

[jm89]

I'm so out of touch that I honestly can't wrap my head around the factors that are causing Sony to be so successful.

 

[fart town usa]

I'd wager that you're spot on. I've been looking at it from the wrong angle this whole time.

 

[Poltz]

I'm so out of touch that I honestly can't wrap my head around the factors that are causing Sony to be so successful.

Games. The Last Of Us, Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Spider Man, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us 2, Spider Man: Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls, Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, Returnal, Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, God of War Ragnarok. Not a bad list of titles since the PS4 launch and into PS5.

 

[Montauk]

Games.

That’s it.

And while I feel you can make plenty of criticisms of the big exclusive first party Sony titles, they review and sell well and generate tonnes of hype and adoration.

Where are the Xbox titles with the buzz and fan adoration of…well, you know the list?

 

[fart town usa]

Games. The Last Of Us, Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Spider Man, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us 2, Spider Man: Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls, Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, Returnal, Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, God of War Ragnarok. Not a bad list of titles since the PS4 launch and into PS5.

Trust me, I get it. Sony has been my go to pretty much since the PSX, I'm just surprised that the vast majority of the games you listed get people to buy their consoles in droves.

 

[Montauk]

Trust me, I get it. Sony has been my go to pretty much since the PSX, I'm just surprised that the vast majority of the games you listed get people to buy their consoles in droves.

Why? Regardless of how you feel personally - and I share some of the criticisms of Sonys big titles - the attraction of these games is clear.

Look how much hype they generate. Look at how buzz around them. Look at the fan passion, all the fan art, GIFs, screenshots and memes. Look at the reviews and sales.

These are crowd pleasers. If you just took one series of exclusive titles - Uncharted - what is driving buzz like that on the Xbox side?

It’s like a wasteland by comparison.

 

[gokurho]

That’s it.

And while I feel you can make plenty of criticisms of the big exclusive first party Sony titles, they review and sell well and generate tonnes of hype and adoration.

Where are the Xbox titles with the buzz and fan adoration of…well, you know the list?

You dont know Minecraft, COD, Diablo, WoW, OW, Crash Bandicoot, Sekiro, Starfield, TES, FO and Doom?really?

 

[azertydu91]

You dont know Minecraft, COD, Diablo, WoW, OW, Crash Bandicoot, Sekiro, Starfield, TES, FO and Doom?really?

I honestly have trouble knowing what is sarcasm and what is not with you anymore...You hit it too close to what some could be saying sometimes.

 

[Unknown?]

You dont know Minecraft, COD, Diablo, WoW, OW, Crash Bandicoot, Sekiro, Starfield, TES, FO and Doom?really?

Crash only did well with remakes, no one cared about 4, it was like Wrath of Cortex, a nice imitation of the originals.

All those other games aside from Star field are on other platforms.

 

[Poltz]

You dont know Minecraft, COD, Diablo, WoW, OW, Crash Bandicoot, Sekiro, Starfield, TES, FO and Doom?really?

All of these games were/ are available on PlayStation 4/5 though.

 

[Montauk]

You dont know Minecraft, COD, Diablo, WoW, OW, Crash Bandicoot, Sekiro, Starfield, TES, FO and Doom?really?

God, I thought this was serious for a second.

 

[fart town usa]

Why? Regardless of how you feel personally - and I share some of the criticisms of Sonys big titles - the attraction of these games is clear.

Look how much hype they generate. Look at how buzz around them. Look at the fan passion, all the fan art, GIFs, screenshots and memes. Look at the reviews and sales.

These are crowd pleasers. If you just took one series of exclusive titles - Uncharted - what is driving buzz like that on the Xbox side?

It’s like a wasteland by comparison.

It's cause I'm out of touch. I look at these games and some appeal to me but the others I've played in the list just make me scratch my head. It's 100% me being out of touch with modern gaming. Not trying to shit on anything in particular, I just generally can't wrap my head around it cause I'm that out of touch, lol.

 

[DJ12]

So far until now it still has less games even than the One, so it’s no wonder it’s not attracting people at the moment. Can turn around, but it’ll take years of quality output to change the tides

And as we know big papa Phil doesn’t believe in great games selling consoles so it's not going to happen.

 

[StereoVsn]

Crash only did well with remakes, no one cared about 4, it was like Wrath of Cortex, a nice imitation of the originals.

All those other games aside from Star field are on other platforms.

I mean Starfield is going to be on PC where I suspect most people will play it.

It's going to be interesting to see if it will drive Xbox and GamePass sales in a meaningful fashion. They also have new Forza coming but I feel the audience is pretty much built in already there.

 

[Montauk]

It's cause I'm out of touch. I look at these games and some appeal to me but the others I've played in the list just make me scratch my head. It's 100% me being out of touch with modern gaming. Not trying to shit on anything in particular, I just generally can't wrap my head around it cause I'm that out of touch, lol.

To be clear I’m not saying all of that particular list, but a lot of them. And the other Sony first party exclusives that you could list that are polished crowd-pleasers.

The easiest way to point to their appeal is how good their graphics are (understatement) and how broadly speaking movie-like many of them are.

They use the language of cinema, they’re story focused (understatement!), they’re super slickly presented, you can easily show them to somebody else and say “look at this”, you know?

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

So you don't think the gen where they introduced Game Pass, their BC initiative, the One X was them trying?

Problem is, they don't know and seemingly aren't interested in actively managing talent ant studios. You think modern sony would have allowed a game like Redfall to go on sale? Sony knows that running studios is like running a film production company. Meanwhile on the xbox side of things, they are more interested in services.

They screwed up BIG time with the Xbox Series S. That's one of their first mistakes.

Ever since they decided mid-to-late 360 gen that kinect was the future and shitcanned most of their studios, they've strung together mistake after mistake.

But now, they're facing a proper hardware crisis: third year on sale and sales are going down - if this trend isn't reversed, it's actual doom for the series consoles.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

ps5 wont sell as much as ps4.

It's trending above the PS4 and absolutely nothing suggests that it won't.

 

[ReBurn]

That's cool I guess

 

[Mibu no ookami]

For the life of me, I can't believe the xbox one and ps4 were that close in the US. 55 to 45 isn't that much.

The rest of the world the xbox one got cream pied.

The 360 did VERY VERY well. It built a whole generation of Xbox gamers. The X1 did a lot of damage to the Xbox Brand and the XS is losing mindshare in the US.

People still think multiplatform Starfield is going to move the needle against Spider-Man 2...

 

[ByWatterson]

Trust me, I get it. Sony has been my go to pretty much since the PSX, I'm just surprised that the vast majority of the games you listed get people to buy their consoles in droves.

They're entertainment experiences you can't get from any other company in any other medium. It's that simple.

 

[Raonak]

I'm so out of touch that I honestly can't wrap my head around the factors that are causing Sony to be so successful.

A steady stream of good exclusives which builds up momentum.

The tail end of the PS3 was filled with great games, which meant PS4 rode a wave of positive mindshare.
The tail end of PS4 was even better (gow,spidey,tlou2,ghost), which meant PS5 rode an even bigger wave of positive mindshare.

If you enjoyed your PS4, then getting a PS5 is the logical decision. And if you never had a PS4, then getting a PS5 means you have access to all those games.

 

[Sorcerer]

Yeah, I have no idea. It might cause a bit of an increase in sales for a month or two and then sales will drop again. It's probably not going to create any long-lasting momentum.

Most won't even finish Starfield. It's intriguing, but probably too much content for the average console player. MS better come through with some announcements soon, we probably won't be seeing another Elder Scrolls or Fallout for at least five years. Almost next gen time in fact.

 

[{insert code here}]

Really not sure how MS can salvage the current situation. Starfield is here and it's going to be huge but what and when is the next title? They needed a string of blockbusters with set release dates and they don't have that.

Tbf Sony doesn't have anything lined up either (beyond SM2) but the brand is strong enough, for now, to handle a drought.

 

[NikuNashi]

I blame 343.

If HALO infinite had been released on day 1 and was a banger, 95+ metacritic game with legs then this situation would be very different. That bunch of blue haired freaks fckd up the Xbox launch and ultimately the sales trajectory.

It's the first console I've seen in all of the 30+ years I've been gaming that released without a new game, utterly insane and deserved to fail.

 

[Crayon]

It's the first console I've seen in all of the 30+ years I've been gaming that released without a new game, utterly insane and deserved to fail.

 

[MrA]

I blame 343.

If HALO infinite had been released on day 1 and was a banger, 95+ metacritic game with legs then this situation would be very different. That bunch of blue haired freaks fckd up the Xbox launch and ultimately the sales trajectory.

It's the first console I've seen in all of the 30+ years I've been gaming that released without a new game, utterly insane and deserved to fail.

only one other console was so thread bare with so little following up, (granted there are a few consoles with total libraries of like 5 games,they all usually launched day and date with the console) the super grafx launched with 0 games , (technically one , a particularly bad game, was released a week earlier, but literally no games that used the hardware released the same day) and it would be 7 months for the second game then like another 6 months each for the last 3 games
and the intellivision amico released "games" without hardware

 

[drganon]

At least you tried.

This year, Charlie Brown is about to kick that football.

 

[skit_data]

At least you tried.

The lack of imagination is truly impressive, I'd love to read his autobiography "Leaves and Dust".

 

[TonyK]

Just this generation I switched from PS5 to XSX and started buying all new multiplatform games for Xbox. I didn't ditch the PS5, I always will own a Playstation as Naughty Dog is my favourite developer. But personally, I like more the digital library UX, Quick Resume, GamePass and the controller of Xbox, so I I switched brands even if I've been a Sonyer almost all my life. But the thing is I always have the feeling Xbox is an (almost) dead brand, that meanwhile it will be for sure a PS6, I can't be sure if Microsoft will release a next Xbox or if it will leave the hardware development and focus only on software.

I like the console, but I dislike the insecurity that the brand gives to me. They can't grow if they don't appear as a future proof purchase.

 

[mckmas8808]

I'm so out of touch that I honestly can't wrap my head around the factors that are causing Sony to be so successful.

They are doing most things right. And giving gamers what they want. People on Twitter or podcasts saying other wise are just either being paid to lie about Playstation or out of touch.

 

[mckmas8808]

To be clear I’m not saying all of that particular list, but a lot of them. And the other Sony first party exclusives that you could list that are polished crowd-pleasers.

The easiest way to point to their appeal is how good their graphics are (understatement) and how broadly speaking movie-like many of them are.

They use the language of cinema, they’re story focused (understatement!), they’re super slickly presented, you can easily show them to somebody else and say “look at this”, you know?

And let us not forget............those games are also REALLY REALLY FUN!!

 

[Heisenberg007]

Just this generation I switched from PS5 to XSX and started buying all new multiplatform games for Xbox. I didn't ditch the PS5, I always will own a Playstation as Naughty Dog is my favourite developer. But personally, I like more the digital library UX, Quick Resume, GamePass and the controller of Xbox, so I I switched brands even if I've been a Sonyer almost all my life. But the thing is I always have the feeling Xbox is an (almost) dead brand, that meanwhile it will be for sure a PS6, I can't be sure if Microsoft will release a next Xbox or if it will leave the hardware development and focus only on software.

I like the console, but I dislike the insecurity that the brand gives to me. They can't grow if they don't appear as a future proof purchase.

Interesting. Have you been buying physical games on Xbox or just digital only games?

My next question would be, if you've been buying digital-only games and are also (understandably) not sure if Xbox would survive as a console brand, does it deter you from buying any digital-only games that you won't be able to sell if the brand goes under?