Do you understand how many devs would drop out completely out of the industry or go mobile if they followed your advice? Higher dev costs mean you have to sell more than ever and only way to do that is dev and publish on PS4+X1+PC.
Not really. If "everyone" has a PlayStation, you can just focus on that, saving the time/money you'd have spent on porting to other platforms, and "everyone" will still be able to play your game, which is now exclusive-quality. Maximum return on minimal investment. It doesn't get any better than that for a developer.
Overlap, someone is likely to have both console's than having 2 of one console per person.
Plus a dev has to invest money in developing for the other console rather than just one, this is why the WiiU gets shit on by devs, because the return in just merely porting a game isn't worth it.
Overlap is kinda what throws everything off. If there are 80M PS3s and 80M XB360s, that doesn't necessarily mean there are 160M potential customers for your game. Maybe there are still only 120M gamers, and 40M of them own both systems. So while 110M PS4s and 20M XBones may seem like a big contraction, there may be only 10M potential customers out of that pool of 120M you'd miss by going PS4-exclusive,
Do you see a rotting product on the store? Maybe Vita and Wii U, although Wii U gets some support from Nintendo.
But are you saying X1 can't compete anymore? Is it a rotting product? No and no. And after only six months you shouldn't even be making these calls. It took from end of 2006 to mid 2009 (PS3 slim) for PS3 to start shining. That's almost 3 years.
I see what you are going after with your one console dream, but there is too many questions and dangers that overcome the positive sides. Do you have an example where a single product market has been better than multiple competing products?
I'll say it. After the launch rushes passed last year, the
PS4 has been selling 3-4x faster than XBone. Even more troubling for MS is their sales come almost entirely from the US and UK, and they're behind in those markets as well. If/when those two markets fully jump on the PS4 bandwagon, XBone sales will be effectively zero. But even if they don't throw in with PS4, at the current sales rates, when PS4 is hitting 100M, XBone would be at about 30M.
There's so much crazy hyperbole in this thread with people drooling over the idea of microsodt being finished. Does anyone remember the ps3 early last gen and it's sales position compared to the 360? That console managed to recover despite the ridiculous price and the cell being a nightmare to make games for initially, with poor tools available. Competition is apways good and needed, why would any of you here want this to be a one man race.
Except, PS3 sales were always better than XB360 sales. That's how it was able to overcome the 10M-unit head start XB360 had. There was one year where they tied, and one where XB360 was slightly ahead thanks to Kinect, IIRC but other than that, PS3 led every year.
PS3 sold ~80M over seven years, compared to ~70M XB360s in the same time frame. There was no "comeback." It just got a late start, which probably slowed its overall sales. Without the late start, it likely would've sold far better than XB360.
Actually, what you're forgetting is that last gen was split between three consoles, whereas this gen, with WiiU underperforming, is essentially split between two consoles. Even if Sony dominates all regions, the Xbox brand can still manage a very healthy total sales figure, that might even surpass the 80 million set by the 360. The market and demand are larger than they have ever been, and both consoles are beating their predecessors.
So where does the need to 'recover' even come from? Seems like an unfounded fear.
There's no way XBone passes 80M. As much as 75% of its sales are coming from the US. To sell 80M worldwide, they'd need to sell 50-60M US, and that ain't gonna happen.